Many discoveries have been made throughout the history of science. However, only a few of them we have to deal with every day. It is impossible to imagine modern life without what Hertz Heinrich Rudolph did.
This German physicist became the founder of dynamics and proved to the whole world the fact of the existence of electromagnetic waves. It is thanks to his research that we use television and radio, which have firmly entered the life of every person.
Family
Heinrich Hertz was born on February 22, 1857. His father, Gustav, was a lawyer by the nature of his work, after rising to the rank of senator of the city of Hamburg, where the family lived. The boy's mother is Betty Augusta. She was the daughter of the famous Cologne bank founder. It is worth saying that this institution is still functioning in Germany. Heinrich was the firstborn of Betty and Gustav. Later, three more boys and one girl appeared in the family.
School years
As a child, Heinrich Hertz was a weak and sickly boy. That is why he did not like outdoor games and physical exercises. But on the other hand, Heinrich read various books with great enthusiasm and studied foreign languages. All thiscontributed to memory training. There are interesting facts about the biography of the future scientist, which indicate that the boy managed to learn Arabic and Sanskrit on his own.
Parents believed that their first-born would certainly become a lawyer, following in the footsteps of his father. The boy was sent to the Hamburg Real School. There he was to study law. However, at one of the levels of education at the school, classes in physics began to be held. And from that moment on, Henry's interests changed radically. Fortunately, his parents did not insist on studying law. They allowed the boy to find his calling in life and transferred him to the gymnasium. On weekends, Heinrich studied at the school of crafts. The boy spent a lot of time behind the drawings, studying carpentry. As a schoolboy, he made his first attempts to create instruments and apparatus for studying physical phenomena. All this testified that the child was drawn to knowledge.
Student years
In 1875, Heinrich Hertz received his Abitur. This gave him the right to go to university. In 1875 he left for Dresden, where he became a student at a higher technical school. At first, the young man liked studying at this institution. However, Heinrich Hertz soon realized that the career of an engineer was not his calling. The young man left the school and went to Munich, where he was accepted immediately to the second year of the university.
The path to science
As a student, Heinrich began to strive for research activities. But soon the young man realized thatknowledge obtained at the university is clearly not enough for this. That is why, having received a diploma, he went to Berlin. Here, in the capital of Germany, Heinrich became a university student and got a job as an assistant in the laboratory of Hermann Helmholtz. This prominent physicist of that time noticed a talented young man. Soon a good relationship was established between them, which later turned not only into close friendship, but also into scientific cooperation.
Getting a PhD
Under the guidance of the famous physicist, Hertz defended his thesis, becoming a recognized specialist in the field of electrodynamics. It was in this direction that he subsequently made fundamental discoveries that immortalized the name of the scientist.
In those years, neither the electric nor the magnetic field had yet been studied. Scientists believed that there were simple fluids. They allegedly have inertia, due to which an electric current appears and disappears in the conductor.
Heinrich Hertz conducted numerous experiments. However, at first he did not receive positive results in identifying inertia. Nevertheless, in 1879 he received a prize from the University of Berlin for his research. This award served as a powerful impetus to continue his research activities. The results of Hertz's scientific experiments subsequently formed the basis of his dissertation. Her defense on February 5, 1880 was the beginning of the career of a young scientist who at that time was 32 years old. Hertz was crowned with a doctorate, issuing a diploma from the University of Berlin withhonors.
Manage your own laboratory
Heinrich Hertz, whose biography as a scientist did not end with the defense of his dissertation, for some time continued his theoretical research at the Physics Institute, located at the University of Berlin. However, he soon realized that he was becoming more and more attracted to experiments.
In 1883, on the recommendation of Helmholtz, the young scientist received a new position. He became an assistant professor in Kiel. Six years after this appointment, Hertz rose to the rank of professor of physics, starting his work in Karlsruhe, where the Higher Technical School was located. Here, for the first time, Hertz received his own experimental laboratory, which provided him with freedom of creativity and the opportunity to engage in experiments of interest to him. The main direction of the scientist's research was the field of studying fast electrical oscillations. These were questions that Hertz worked on while still a student.
Heinrich got married in Karlsruhe. Elizabeth Doll became his wife.
Getting proof of scientific discoveries
Despite his marriage, the scientist Heinrich Hertz did not abandon his work. He continued to conduct research on the study of inertia. In his scientific developments, Hertz relied on the theory put forward by Maxwell, according to which the speed of radio waves should be similar to the speed of light. Between 1886 and 1889 Hertz conducted numerous experiments in this direction. As a result, the scientist proved the existence of electromagnetic waves.
Despite the fact thatfor his experiments, the young physicist used primitive equipment, he managed to get quite serious results. Hertz's work was not only a confirmation of the presence of electromagnetic waves. The scientist also determined the speed of their propagation, refraction and reflection.
Heinrich Hertz, whose discoveries formed the basis of modern electrodynamics, received a huge number of various awards for his work. Among them:
- the Baumgartner Prize, awarded by the Vienna Academy;
- the medal to them. Matteuchi, presented by the Society of Sciences in Italy;
- Prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences;
- Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure.
Besides, we all know hertz - a unit of frequency, named after the famous discoverer. At the same time, Heinrich became a corresponding member of the academies of sciences in Rome, Berlin, Munich and Vienna. The conclusions that the scientist made are truly invaluable. Thanks to what Heinrich Hertz discovered, inventions such as wireless telegraphy, radio and television subsequently became possible for mankind. And today without them it is impossible to imagine our life. And hertz is a unit of measurement familiar to each of us from school.
Opening the photo effect
Since 1887, scientists began to revise their theoretical ideas about the nature of light. And this happened thanks to the research of Heinrich Hertz. Carrying out work with an open resonator, the famous physicist drew attention to the fact that when the spark gaps are illuminated with ultraviolet light, the passage betweenthem sparks. Such a photoelectric effect was carefully tested by the Russian physicist A. G. Stoletov in 1888-1890. It turned out that this phenomenon is caused by the elimination of negative electricity from metal surfaces due to exposure to ultraviolet light.
Heinrich Hertz is a physicist who discovered a phenomenon (it was later explained by Albert Einstein), which today is widely used in technology. So, the photoelectric effect is based on the action of photocells, with the help of which it is possible to obtain electricity from sunlight. Such devices are especially relevant in space, where there are no other sources of energy. Also, with the help of photocells from the film, the recorded sound is reproduced. And that's not all.
Today, scientists have learned how to combine photocells with relays, which has led to the creation of various "seeing" automata. These devices can automatically close and open doors, turn lights off and on, sort items, etc.
Meteorology
Hertz has always had a deep interest in this field of science. And although the scientist did not study meteorology in depth, he wrote a number of articles on this topic. This was the period when the physicist worked in Berlin as an assistant to Helmholtz. Hertz also conducted research on the evaporation of liquids, determining the properties of raw air subjected to adiabatic changes, obtaining a new graphic tool and a hygrometer.
Contact mechanics
The greatest popularity of Hertz brought discoveries in the field of electrodynamics. In 1881-1882.the scientist published two articles on the topic of contact mechanics. This work was of great importance. It resulted in results based on the classical theory of elasticity and continuum mechanics. Developing this theory, Hertz observed Newton's rings, which are formed as a result of placing a glass sphere on a lens. To date, this theory has been somewhat revised, and all existing transition contact models are based on it when predicting nanoshear parameters.
Hertz spark radio
This invention of the scientist was the forerunner of the dipole antenna. Hertz's radio receiver was created from a single-turn inductor, as well as from a spherical capacitor, in which an air gap was left for a spark. The apparatus was placed by the physicist in a darkened box. This made it possible to see the spark better. However, such an experiment by Heinrich Hertz showed that the length of the spark in the box was significantly reduced. Then the scientist removed the glass panel, which was placed between the receiver and the source of electromagnetic waves. The length of the spark thus increased. What caused this phenomenon, Hertz did not have time to explain.
And only later, thanks to the development of science, the scientist's discoveries were finally understood by others and became the basis for the emergence of the "wireless era". All in all, Hertz's electromagnetic experiments explained polarization, refraction, reflection, interference, and the speed that electromagnetic waves possess.
Beam effect
In 1892, based on his experiments, Hertzdemonstrated the passage of cathode rays through a thin foil made of metal. This "beam effect" was more fully explored by a student of the great physicist, Philip Lenard. He also developed the theory of the cathode tube and studied the penetration of various materials by x-rays. All this became the basis of the greatest invention, which is widely used today. It was the discovery of the X-ray, formulated using the electromagnetic theory of light.
Memory of the great scientist
In 1892, Hertz suffered a severe migraine, after which he was diagnosed with an infection. The scientist was operated on several times, trying to get rid of the disease. However, at the age of thirty-six, Hertz Heinrich Rudolf died of blood poisoning. Until the very last days, the famous physicist worked on his work "Principles of Mechanics, set forth in a new connection." In this book, Hertz tried to comprehend his discoveries by outlining further ways of studying electrical phenomena.
After the death of the scientist, this work was completed and prepared for publication by Hermann Helmholtz. In the preface to this book, he pointed out that Hertz was the most talented of his students, and that his discoveries would later determine the development of science. These words became prophetic. Interest in the discoveries of the scientist appeared among researchers a few years after his death. And in the 20th century, on the basis of the works of Hertz, almost all areas that belong to modern physics began to develop.
In 1925, for the discovery of the laws on the collision of electrons with an atom, the scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize. Received her nephew of the great physicist - Gustav Ludwig Hertz. In 1930, the International Electrotechnical Commission adopted a new unit of measurement system. She became Hertz (Hz). This is the frequency corresponding to one oscillation period per second.
In 1969, a memorial to them. G. Hertz. In 1987 the Heinrich Hertz IEEE medal was established. Its annual presentation is made for outstanding achievements in the field of experiment and theory using any waves. Even the lunar crater, which is located behind the eastern edge of the celestial body, was named after Hertz.
