The Power and Beauty of Electromagnetic Fields

By Frederic R. Morgenthaler

Chapter 18

Page 272

"conductors merely provide a path for the charge distribution to zip along"

by. This creates the surface charges that are needed in order to originate and terminate the electric field. As the pulse moves on (at or near the speed of light), those charges move back into the metal and different charges further down the line repeat the action to produce new surface charge as required. [This is the Southerner view. – I Catt] Simply put, the same charge does not travel with the wave, but the distribution as a whole acts as if it did. The macroscopic Maxwell Equations cannot, of course, distinguish between the individual charges. .... If no (and consequently rho) approach infinity, .... .... The result is dispersion-free propagation.

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