In all representations of electromagnetic radiation that I've seen they represent the electric field and the magnetic field as two perpendicular waves, but they always have them both as sine waves: they peak and cross the origin at the same time. My understanding of electromagnetic radiation, photons for example, was that they were able to travel through space without a medium because their energy cycled from electric to magnetic, and back again: the electric field creating a magnetic field, which created an electric field, etc. In my mind this feels like it ought to be a sine and a cosine wave: when one peaks the other crosses the origin, representing the transfer and conservation of energy. Do the fields grow and collapse at the same rate? or is my understanding of electromagnetic waves askew?
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