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-*- Thus Spake George Spagna:
In article <gspagna.172.769273076@rmc.edu> gspagna@rmc.edu (George Spagna) writes:
 >> ...
 >> Every book I have consulted shows E and B in phase, but this
 >> doesn't make sense if the derivative of the electric field gives
 >> the magnetic field (Faraday's Law).  What's the deal?

 george> They are in phase (assuming a plane wave for now).  I think
 george> your confusion is between Maxwell's equations (directly
 george> relating "source" terms - source of E is -dB/dt, source of B
 george> is dE/dt) and the "wave equation" which involves second
 george> derivatives.

I don't mean to belabor the point, but it is crucial that Maxwell's
eqs. in the absence of sources (ie. currents j) are [c=1]:

curl E = -d/dt B
curl B =  d/dt E

These curls are VERY necessary to this problem. Without these two eqs.
being linear in d/dx,... AND d/dt derivatives, there's no getting to the
above mentioned wave eq. which is quadratic in both derivatives: 

d^2/dt^2 - d^2/dx^2 B (or E) = 0.

The source of _curl_ E is -d/dt B in a plane wave.

Groetjes,   --Jim
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      James E. Hetrick            Institute for Theoretical Physics
     hetrick@phys.uva.nl               University of Amsterdam