ABSTRACT
In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell made the remarkable discovery that
light could be described as an electromagnetic wave (Maxwell,
1864) and therefore was governed by the same laws as all
other forms of electromagnetic radiation. In particular, as the
electromagnetic wave equation is derived fromMaxwell’s equations,
then any solution to the wave equation must also satisfy Maxwell’s
equations. These provide extra constraints on the solutions such as,
for example, the relative directions and magnitudes of the electric
and magnetic fields which constitute the light. Moreover, they
determine how the light is affected by the medium of propagation
and the behaviour at boundaries between different media, resulting
in the phenomena of reflection and refraction.
