Well, to continue my trend of being nit-picky from my last post ...
Not all waves have electric and magnetic components. You get sound waves, light waves, fluid waves (which are basically sound waves at MUCH lower frequency) and, if you believe some crackpot contemporary quantum physicists, space/time waves. Each is made up of different components.
But seriously though ... NiclasG is spot on.
A purely electric wave can't propogate through space without a magnetic component. It would collapse as soon as it forms.
It would be like a car without wheels or a diver's cylinder without gas.
EM radiation needs both the magnetic and electric components to enable it to propogate through space.
Not sure on that bit about short-circuiting the electric field though. That sounds like hand-waving, 'lies to children' physics to me. :blinking: Isn't it just that the coefficient of transmission through water really lousy or it has something to do with the resonant frequency (as you mentioned)?
There is a big difference between those two and 'short-circuiting' an electric field!!!
/nerd
P.S. This stuff was 2 years ago for me NiclasG, not 20, and I've already forgotten 90% of it! :depressed: