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View submission: Two questions about light waves
In a rectangular waveguide using a TE mode, the electric field is transverse to the direction of propagation. The magnetic field has both a transverse and longitudinal component. However, nothing is moving. This is one of the reasons that I prefer the interpretation that the field is nothing, but numbers attached to points in space. Numbers attached to points in space don't move.
Comment by Jeff-Root at 28/12/2023 at 12:10 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
nothing is moving.
Nothing? The electromagnetic energy is moving, isn't it? Do you need to qualify "nothing"? Or maybe qualify "moving"? Like, "nothing is moving longitudinally". Or even "nothing is moving either longitudinally or transversely relative to (something)"? Actually, I think I can visualize the latter interpretation and hope it is correct because it might be exactly the way I have understood it to work for years: A photon is like a wave drawn on a piece of paper, and the paper moves through space. The drawing doesn't change in any way as it moves. No part of the drawing moves or changes relative to any other part. Totally different from water waves, that move up and down, and the water itself moves in something close to a circle or ellipse as the wave moves along.