ABSTRACT
A friendly warning to the reader: this discussion on the propagation and polarization of waves may bring back memories of school physics from another age as it does for the authors. The wave phenomena were profusely described at the time with images of ripples in water and skipping ropes. One day electromagnetic waves appeared on the black board. Newtonian physics suddenly faded into insignificance in the light of this new mysterious and infinite perspective. Indeed, for the first time, the teacher had referred to Maxwell’s equations with the fascination of a geographer for uncharted territories. According to him, they governed the behavior of this abstract universe, bedecked in symmetry.
