2D View of an Accelerated Charge

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A 2-D view of a pulse of radiation spreading out from a briefly accelerated charge. Only the electric field is shown. Far from the charge the electric field still points away from the original location of the charge. Near the charge it points away from the current location of the charge. At the boundary between these two regions the field is transverse (shown in red). This boundary expands at the speed of  light. This movie was produced by Bruce Sherwood.