What do Maxwells equations mean?
Maxwell’s equations describe electricity and magnetism; all electromagnetic phenomena can be represented by solutions to Maxwell’s equations under different boundary conditions. Electromagnetic waves are one possible solution. Here’s a link I found from googling around that may be helpful for those who want a quick review: www3.baylor.edu/ Walter_Wilcox/courses/phy2435/chap32xx.pdf. Generally you can find this sort of stuff in any intro E&M text. You need to have a general understanding of these concepts and we will be drawing on this material at various times, so you may want to brush up if you are rusty, or do some serious reading if you haven’t seen this before. But this is not the focus of the course and you will not be asked direct questions about Maxwell’s equations.
