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Could someone give me an overview of Hertz's experiment? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter VenomP
- Start date
Yeah, this is one of the parts of the course that i find difficult to grasp/ remember/ care about.
Well, here goes!
1886- Hertz begins experiments that verify Maxwell's two most important predictions:
- Electromagnetic waves could exist with many different frequencies
- All such waves would propagate through space at the speed of light.
Hertz did experiments to produce electromagnetic waves that weren't light. When he was successful in this, he then investigated the properties of that VMR, and found that it travelled at the same speed as light (within experimental limits)
By applying a high voltage AC source, Hertz produced a spark at the transmitter. This caused a vertically polarised EMW to cross the detector. The EMW acclerated electrons in the metal of the detector.
Hertz was able to show that the waves he was producing had the following properties:
- they were polarised
- they could be reflected
- they could be refracted in suitable mediums
- they underwent diffraction through a diffraction grating. Using the interference pattern produced by the grating, Hertz was able to determine the wavelength of the waves. Knowing the frequency of the AC voltage that produced them, Hertz could determine their velocity.
JasonNg1025
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- Oct 14, 2007
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- 2010
When the spark jumped across the transmitter, a spark also jumped across the detector loop (just a plain loop of metal).
He 'accidentally' discovered the photoelectric effect when he started firing UV light at the detector and found that the spark was stronger. As gabgab said, the EMR from the transmitter caused the electrons in the receiver to jump the gap, and the UV light made them even more excited by the photoelectric effect.
He 'accidentally' discovered the photoelectric effect when he started firing UV light at the detector and found that the spark was stronger. As gabgab said, the EMR from the transmitter caused the electrons in the receiver to jump the gap, and the UV light made them even more excited by the photoelectric effect.
