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What is a retarded potential?

  • A.A potential evaluated at an earlier time to allow for propagation delay
  • B.A potential reduced by the resistance of the conductor
  • C.A potential measured after the transient has decayed away
  • D.A potential that lags the current by ninety degrees in phase

Answer: A

Because the field takes time to travel, the potential at a point now depends on the source as it was one propagation time earlier, and writing the source at that retarded time is what turns the static potential integrals into radiating ones. Every radiation result follows from this single modification. Ohmic loss, transient decay and reactive phase lag are all real effects but none of them is what the word retarded refers to here.

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