Hertz, Heinrich Rudolf
The German Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857 - 1894), son to a lawyer and politician, was a physicist.
He proved the existence of airborne electromagnetic waves, which led to an explosion of experimentation with this new form of electromagnetic radiation.
He helped establish the photoelectric effect (which was later explained by Albert Einstein) when he noticed that a charged object loses its charge more readily when illuminated by ultraviolet light.
He lent his name to to the hertz, the unit of frequency.
See also
Last modified:10 January 2026 2.51 p.m.