Surely you are familiar with measures of frequency such as the hertz, which tells us about the number of cycles of a wave in a second. This SI unit is named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz and it so happens that today, 22nd of Feburary it would have been his birthday.
Although Hertz is probably better know for the name of the SI unit, one of his most important contributions to physics is related to the electromagnetic theory of light as proposed by Maxwell. Hertz was the first one to prove the existence of electromagnetic waves and in turn he used them to send and receive radio waves.
Even Google has decided to remember this great physicist by creating a doodle to celebrate his 155th birthday,
Happy 155th Hertz!
Related articles
- Heinrich Rudolf Hertz celebrated in a Google doodle (guardian.co.uk)