Heinrich Hertz

Personal Life

German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was born on February 22, 1857 into a prosperous and cultured Hanseatic (hierarchy group that constituted the ruling class of Hamburg) family. His father, Gustav Hertz, was a lawyer and later a senator, his mother, Anna Elisabeth Pfefferkorn, was the daughter of a physician, and Heinrich Hertz was the oldest of five children. Both parents were Lutherans but they were more interested in Hertz's education rather than his religious advancement. From the beginning of his education, Hertz was always at the top of his class. He had an uncommon gift for modern and ancient languages; he excelled in Greek at school while taking private lessons in Arabic at the same time. Hertz also had extraordinary aptitudes for mathematics and the sciences. Hertz was homeschooled for a little while before deciding to return to school to prepare him for exams that would admit him to a university. After being an architect's apprentice, completing his army service, and choosing to major in engineering, Hertz finally decided that he wanted to become a physicist. He enrolled in the University of Munich before moving to the University of Berlin to pursue his higher education in physics under Hermann von Helmholtz. In 1880, Hertz received a Ph.D. magna cum laude from the University of Berlin. He then went on to become a professor at the University of Karlsruhe in 1885 and married Elisabeth Doll, the daughter of a lecturer in geometry at Karlsruhe. They had two daughters, Johanna (1887) and Mathilde (1891), who later became a notable biologist. It was during this time that Hertz conducted his prominent research into electromagnetic waves. He also worked on theoretical mechanics and wrote a book. In 1892, Hertz suffered the first signs of serious health problems. He died of granulomatosis with polyangiitis on January 1, 1894 at the age of 36. His book Die Prinzipien der Mechanik was published after his death.

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Further reading

Bryant, John H., Heinrich Hertz, the beginning of microwaves: discovery of electromagnetic waves and opening of the electromagnetic spectrum by Heinrich Hertz in the years 1886-1892, New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Service Center, Single Publication Sales Dept. distributor, 1988.

Buchwald, Jed Z., The creation of scientific effects: Heinrich Hertz and electric waves, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

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References

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Heinrich-Hertz http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz.aspx http://www.famousscientists.org/heinrich-hertz/