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An outgoing radiation pulse carries a finite amount of electromagnetic energy through successively larger enclosing spheres. In vacuum, far from a localized source and without absorption or additional reflections, let $P_{\mathrm{emit}}(t)$ be the emitted power. The retarded time at radius $r$ is $s=t-r/c$. Define ${\overline{S}}_r$ as the angular average of the radial Poynting vector over the sphere, not a cycle average:Here $\overline{u}$ is the angularly averaged energy density in the leading radiation zone approximation. Multiplying by shell area removes geometric dilution: the energy per unit radial thickness translates outward without losing its shape. These angular averages do not assume that an actual electric dipole emits equally in all directions. Nor do they specify an exact spherically symmetric transverse solution of the Maxwell equations.

For an explicitly stipulated model, emitAfter emission ends, $t>\tau$, the pulse lies between $r=c(t-\tau )$ and $r=ct$, provided this shell is in the radiation zone. Its radial thickness remains $c\tau$. Substituting $s=t-r/c$ in the shell integral $\int 4\pi r^2\overline{u}dr$ gives $U=P_0\tau /2$ at every such time. The same substitution in the time integral of $4\pi r^2{\overline{S}}_r$ at any enclosing sphere gives that same total crossing energy. This is conservation of energy in two different views.

Along any fixed direction with nonzero outgoing power, compare the same part of the pulse at two radii, hence at different arrival times. The leading electric field amplitude falls as $1/r$, while its squared wave intensity falls as $1/r^2$. At $2r$ the field is one half and the energy flux one quarter; the signal arrives $r/c$ later. A small fixed area receiver therefore intercepts less energy at greater distance even though every enclosing sphere receives the same total pulse energy. The inverse-square law expresses spreading over area, rather than destruction of energy. Close to the source, the neglected near and far field terms prevent extrapolating these formulas down to $r=0$.