Timeline for Why EM waves lose energy via the square of distance but the light will not? Does that mean that EM propagate forever in vacuum?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
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| Apr 14, 2022 at 10:39 | comment | added | jensen paull | Starting your answer off with that quote from one of the students,also certainly doesn't help with OP's question, since plane waves have absolutely nothing to do with that question. In the same paragraph you then say, (as if to answer the question), that space is a vacuum, and then give vacuum solutions to maxwells equations. Which have nothing to do with the question you pose to answer. And then say that in real life 1/r^2 isn't strictly true, leading TO EVEN MORE confusion. | |
| Apr 14, 2022 at 10:34 | comment | added | jensen paull | Although the question directly is about his proffessors comments, the key question that OP said inspired it was "Why then the light propagate forever in outer space?", Talking about plane waves would just confirm the belief that because plane waves don't lose energy, this is why they "travel forever", which is false for real waves. I don't think that OP is at the level to distinguish the difference between plane waves and waves produced by accelerating charges, without getting themselfs confused | |
| Apr 14, 2022 at 8:10 | comment | added | ondas | I provided a generalized explanation for plane monochromatic waves and made it clear that this is for plane waves specifically as a complement to your explanation of waves emanating from a single point source. Both explanations are valid and complementary to each other. All points where rigorous explanations are not carried out are also sourced. | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 16:54 | comment | added | jensen paull | Downvote: For OP, all electromagnetic waves we see are not plane waves. All real waves obey 1/r^2 law. And I think talking about plane waves in this questions context does a dis-service, as the question is about energy of a wave, and plane waves do not follow the norm. | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 13:23 | vote | accept | Boliotis Manousos | ||
| May 5, 2022 at 21:40 | |||||
| S Apr 13, 2022 at 13:06 | review | First answers | |||
| Apr 13, 2022 at 14:31 | |||||
| S Apr 13, 2022 at 13:06 | history | answered | ondas | CC BY-SA 4.0 |