A plane electromagnetic wave travels , in vacuum , along the y direction. Write the ratio of the magnitudes and the direction of its electric and magnetic filed vectors.

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Solution

Consider a plane electromagnetic wave propagating along positive direction of Y- axis in space with speed c. Since in e-m wave, the electric and magnetic fields are transverse to the direction of wave propagation, therefore, the electric and magnetic fields are in X-Z plane.
At any instant, the electric and magnetic fields varying sinusoidally with x and t can be represented by the equations:-
E= E_x = E₀ sin ω(t-x/c)
B = B_z= B₀ sin ω(t-x/c)
Here E₀ and B₀ are the amplitudes of electric and magnetic fields along X and Z axis respectively.

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