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Why are electric and magnetic waves in phase if one induces the other? Shouldn't there be a delay, similar to how potential energy converts to kinetic energy and vice versa? Additionally, why are their oscillations perpendicular? Is there an intuitive way to grasp these concepts without delving into mathematics?

when a particle moves there will be electric fields that are redirected and updated to the new position and the other that are still unupdated due to the delay of propagation of information which is the speed of light...so to prevent the discontinuity that will occur between the updated and unupdated parts. a region of the electric field will reorient itself despite the lack of information of the charge movement to serve as a bridge between the 2 parts i mentioned...but if it tries to readjust itself and connect with the updated part with its current intensity...it will create electrical energy out of nowhere so to prevent this violation of energy conservation, the electric field first lessens its own energy by converting some of it depending on the particle velocity in the perpendicular direction out of the plane since this perpendicularity insures that this energy is stored and not lost in a way it doesn't interact with the plane**( and this becomes what we call magnetic energy )...and now the electric vectors can redistribute themselves at the same instance to account for the energy that is stored out of the plane so that the total electrical energy in the plane stays the same as before the particle even moved and that's why the redirection of energy in z direction (magnetic energy) and the readjusted part that makes the connection(induced electric field) happens at same time and by doing so it can provide the necessary adjustments to maintain continuity in the electric field

enter image description here

(in red are the updated vectors and in blue are the unupdated ones and in green is the electric part that insure the continuity)

untill the information of the new position of the charge reachs the unupdated part so it can orient itself in a proper way relative to the charge

user402553
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2 Answers2

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To answer to the question in the title and the first paragraph: consider the wave equation for the vector potential in the Lorenz gauge. E is its time derivative and B is its rotation, so E and B do indeed not generate or induce each other. You then also see that E and B are in phase for a running wave and out of phase for a standing wave.

my2cts
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Yes! you are correct, and the down votes are misguided. A changing E (B) field does not make a B (E) field.

See: Jefimenko's Eq.

JEB
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