Over the entire history of science, many discoveries have been made. However, only a few of them we have to face 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 everyday life of every person.
A family
Heinrich Hertz was born on 02.22.1857. His father, Gustav, was a lawyer by the nature of his career, after having served as Senator of the city of Hamburg, in which his family lived. The boy's mother is Betty Augusta. She was the daughter of the famous Cologne founder of the bank. It is worth saying that this institution is still operating in Germany. Henry 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 painful boy. That is why he did not like outdoor games and exercise. But then, with great enthusiasm, Henry read various books and studied foreign languages. All this contributed to the training of memory. There are interesting facts about the biography of the future scientist, which indicate that the boy was able to independently learn Arabic and Sanskrit.
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 educational levels in the school, classes in physics began to be held. And from that moment, the interests of Henry radically changed. Fortunately, his parents did not insist on studying the legal case. They allowed the boy to find his calling in life and transferred him to the gymnasium. On weekends, Henry studied at the school of crafts. The boy spent a lot of time drawing, studying carpentry. As a schoolboy, he made his first attempts to create devices and apparatus for studying physical phenomena. All this testified to the fact that the child is drawn to knowledge.
Student years
In 1875, Heinrich Hertz received a certificate of maturity. 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 an engineering career was not his calling. The young man left the school and went to Munich, where he was accepted immediately to the second year of university.
The path to science
As a student, Henry began to strive for research. But soon the young man realized that the knowledge received at the university was clearly not enough for this. That is why, having received a diploma, he went to Berlin. Here, in the German capital, Heinrich became a university student and got a job as an assistant in the German Helmholtz laboratory. This major 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.
Doctoral Degree
Under the guidance of the famous physicist, Hertz defended his thesis, becoming a recognized expert 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 was studied. Scientists believed that there were simple vibes. They supposedly 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 on the identification of inertia. However, in 1879, he received a prize from the University of Berlin for his research. This award served as a powerful impetus for the continuation of his research activities. The results of Hertz's scientific experiments subsequently formed the basis of the dissertation. Her defense 5. 02.1880 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 with honors from the University of Berlin.
Own Laboratory Management
Heinrich Hertz, whose biography as a scientist did not end in defense of his dissertation, for some time continued his theoretical research at a physics institute located at the University of Berlin. However, he soon realized that more and more experiments began to attract him.
In 1883, on the recommendation of Helmholtz, the young scientist received a new position. He became an assistant professor at 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 research area of the scientist has become the field of study of fast electrical oscillations. These were the questions that Hertz worked on as a student.
In the city of Karlsruhe, Heinrich married. Elizabeth Doll became his wife.
Obtaining evidence of scientific discoveries
Despite the 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. In the period from 1886 to 1889. Hertz conducted numerous experiments in this direction. As a result, the scientist proved the existence of electromagnetic waves.
Despite the fact that the young physicist used primitive equipment for his experiments, he managed to get quite serious results. The work of Hertz 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:
- Baumgartner Prize awarded by the Vienna Academy;
- a medal to them. Matteuchi presented by the Society of Sciences in Italy;
- Prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences;
- Japanese Order of the Holy Treasure.
In addition, we all know hertz, a frequency unit named after the famous discoverer. At the same time, Henry became a corresponding member in the Academies of Sciences of Rome, Berlin, Munich and Vienna. The conclusions made by the scientist are truly invaluable. Thanks to what Heinrich Hertz discovered, inventions such as wireless telegraph, radio and television subsequently became possible for humanity. And today without them it is impossible to imagine our life. And hertz is a unit of measurement familiar to each of us from the school bench.
Opening photo effect
Since 1887, scientists began to revise their theoretical ideas about the nature of light. And this happened thanks to the studies of Heinrich Hertz. Carrying out work with an open resonator, the famous physicist drew attention to the fact that the passage of sparks between them is greatly facilitated by illuminating the arresters with ultraviolet light. Such a photoelectric effect was carefully checked by the Russian physicist A. G. Stoletov in 1888-1890. It turned out that this phenomenon was caused by the elimination of negative electricity from metal surfaces due to exposure to ultraviolet light.
Heinrich Hertz is a physicist who discovered the phenomenon (later it was explained by Albert Einstein), which today finds wide application in technology. So, the action of photocells is based on the photoelectric effect, 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, using the photocells from the film, the recorded sound is reproduced. And that's not all.
Today, scientists have learned to combine photocells with relays, which led to the creation of various "seeing" machines. These devices are capable of automatically closing and opening doors, turning lights off and on, sorting objects, etc.
Meteorology
Hertz has always been deeply interested 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 Helmholtz's assistant. Hertz also conducted research on the evaporation of liquids, determining the properties of adiabatically modified raw air, obtaining a new graphic tool and a hygrometer.
Contact mechanics
The most popular Hertz brought discoveries in the field of electrodynamics. In 1881-1882 The scientist published two articles on the mechanics of contact. This work was of great importance. Its result was the results, which were 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 the lens. To date, this theory has been somewhat revised, and all existing models of transition contact are based on it in predicting the parameters of nanoscale shifts.
Hertz Spark Radio
This invention of the scientist was the forerunner of a dipole antenna. The Hertz radio 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 a physicist in a darkened box. This made it possible to better see the spark. However, such an experiment by Heinrich Hertz showed that in the box the length of the spark 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 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”. In general, all of Hertz's electromagnetic experiments explained the polarization, refraction, reflection, interference, and the speed that electromagnetic waves possess.
Beam effect
In 1892, based on his experiments, Hertz demonstrated the passage of cathode rays through a thin foil made of metal. This "ray effect" was more fully studied by the 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. This was an X-ray discovery formulated using the electromagnetic theory of light.
The memory of the great scientist
In 1892, Hertz suffered a serious migraine, after which he was diagnosed with an infection. The scientist was operated several times, trying to get rid of the disease. However, at the age of thirty-six, Hertz Heinrich Rudolph 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, outlining further ways of studying electrical phenomena.
After the death of the scientist, this work was completed and prepared for publication by German Helmholtz. In the preface to this book, he pointed out that Hertz was the most talented of his students, and that his discoveries would subsequently 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 work of Hertz, practically all directions that belong to modern physics began to develop.
In 1925, the scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of laws on the collision of electrons with an atom. Got her nephew of the great physicist - Gustav Ludwig Herz. In 1930, the International Electrotechnical Commission adopted a new unit of measurement system. Hertz became her (Hz). This is the frequency corresponding to one period of oscillations within a second.
In 1969, a memorial to them was erected on the territory of East Germany. 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. In honor of Hertz even a lunar crater was named, which is located behind the eastern edge of the celestial body.