ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we derived the explicit form of the monochromatic harmonic planewave solutions to Maxwell’s Equations in vacuum. This achievement tells us two additional things: that Maxwell’s Equations reduce to wave equations in this limit [by virtue of the fact that they admit propagating wave solutions], and that our Ansatz was reasonable [by virtue of the phenomenological relevance of these solutions]. Several conditions specific to our Ansatz, viz., that the electric and magnetic fields are mutually orthogonal and that each lies perpendicular to the direction in which the wave propagates, turn out to be more generally valid.
