Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a physicist and engineer born in Hamburg (Germanic Confederation) on February 22, 1857. He died very young, on January 1, 1894, before turning 37 years old. Despite this, he made outstanding contributions to science, including those that led Marconi to produce a radio station.
Some other contributions of his investigations are those related to the photoelectric effect. The importance of his work made his name the chosen one to measure the frequency.
In this way, hertz, or Hertz in most languages, became part of the scientific language in recognition of the contributions of this scientist.
Index
- 1 Biography of Heinrich Hertz
- 1.1 Childhood and first years of study
- 1.2 University and first jobs
- 1.3 Death
- 2 Scientific contributions
- 2.1 Prize of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin
- 2.2 Demonstration of Maxwell's Equations
- 2.3 Practical uses of the Hertz discovery
- 2.4 Photoelectric effect
- 2.5 Tributes
- 3 References
Biography of Heinrich Hertz
Childhood and first years of study
Hertz was born in Hamburg in 1857, son of Gustav Hertz and Anna Elizabeth Pfefferkom. Although the father was of Jewish origin, all the brothers born of marriage were educated in the religion of the mother, Lutheranism.
The family enjoyed a good financial position, since the father was a lawyer and even became a senator in the city.
Heinrich began to stand out very early in his studies. In fact, he entered a prestigious private school with six years, in which he became the most outstanding student. His skills not only stayed in the theoretical part of the subject, but also had a great talent in the practical part.
Similarly, he had a great facility for the study of foreign languages, receiving classes up to Arabic.
University and first jobs
In 1872, at the age of 15, he entered the Johanna Gymnasium and, apart from that, he received technical drawing classes. Three years later, the young Hertz was ready to think about the University. To be able to face the exams better to access higher education, he moves to the city of Frankfurt.
Finally, he started his engineering career, although he did not let go of his other great passion: physical . Therefore, a few years later, he moved to Berlin to study this subject. It can be said that it was the union of his knowledge in both disciplines that gave him success in his research.
With only 23 years, in 1880, he obtained his doctorate thanks to a celebrated thesis on the rotation of spheres in a magnetic field. Thanks to this, he continued as a student and assistant to Hermann von Helmholtz, another physicist of the country. As early as 1883, he began working at the University of Kiel as a teacher.
Death
When he was at the peak of his career, in 1889, Hertz began to present serious health problems. The truth is that he continued working until the end of his days, but finally the granulomatosis he suffered caused his death. He died in Bonn, Germany, at only 36 years old.
Scientific contributions
Prize of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin
Contrary to what usually happens with other scientists Hertz was awarded at the beginning of his career and, in fact, the award was one of the drivers of it.
It all started when he was still in Berlin, developing his work with Helmholrz. He told him about a prize he could aspire to, awarded by the Berlin Academy of Sciences. It was about trying to demonstrate in a practical way, through an experiment, the so-called Maxwell equations.
This British scientist had developed a study in which he demonstrated theoretically the existence of"electromagnetic waves". His theory only existed as a mathematical calculation, but many researchers in Europe were trying to perform the experiment that managed to confirm it.
In any case, it seems that Heinrich Hertz at first thought that it was not possible to make the demonstration of the theory, so, for a time, he did not even work for it.
Only when the Dutch Lorentz began to try to win the award, coinciding with Hertz changing jobs and city in 1885, the German begins his investigations.
At the University of Karlsruhe, where he worked as a professor of physics, he also finds better technical means, which is very helpful for success.
Demonstration of Maxwell's Equations
After two years of work in Karlsruhe, Hertz achieves his purpose of experimentally demonstrating the validity of Maxwell's theories. For this, he only needed a few materials, mainly metallic wires connected to an oscillating circuit.
He placed the threads giving them a ring shape, with a very small distance between them. In this way, it turned them into a receiving station capable of receiving electromagnetic currents and causing tiny sparks.
Thus, it confirmed not only the existence of the waves, but that they propagate at the speed of light, sharing many of its characteristics.
Practical uses of the Hertz discovery
Hertz works in this area contributed to the invention of the wireless telegraph and radio. Thus, Marconi, an Italian physicist, used experiments with waves to build a device capable of transmitting impulses.
In 1901, he managed to get one of these impulses to cross the Atlantic Ocean, inaugurating the wireless transmissions.
A little later, the same thing would happen with the radio, for which they also relied on the work done by Hertz.
Photoelectric effect
Despite the early death, Hertz also discovered the so-called photoelectric effect. This discovery was made in 1887, placing two electrodes attached to high voltage.
When he observed the arc between the two electrodes, he realized that he reached a greater distance if ultraviolet light was applied and less if the environment was left in the dark.
This showed that the electrons of a metal surface can escape under certain conditions of short wave light.
Tributes
The main tribute that science has paid to Hertz is the use of its name as a unit of frequency measurement. Apart there is a lunar crater and an asteroid baptized with his surname.
References
- Biographies and Lives. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Retrieved from biografiasyvidas.com
- Science only Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Retrieved from solociencia.com
- EcuRed. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Retrieved from ecured.cu
- Famous Scientists Heinrich Hertz. Retrieved from famousscientists.org
- Michael W. Davidson and The Florida State University. Heinrich Rudolph Hertz. Retrieved from micro.magnet.fsu.edu
- Heinrichrhertz. Contributions - Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Retrieved from heinrichrhertz.weebly.com
- Harvard University. Heinrich Hertz's Wireless Experiment (1887). Retrieved from people.seas.harvard.edu