Name: hertz's spark gaps and radio waves
Uploaded: 2025-05-22T09:05:53.000Z
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K12 Standards

Tennessee Academic Standards

High School

Physics

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Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

PHYS.PS4.5

Generating Electromagnetic Radiations

Elektromagnetische Wellen werden durch die Beschleunigung elektrischer Ladungen erzeugt. Es kann mit der Versuchsapparatur von Heinrich Hertz demonstriert werden.
Der Transmitter besteht aus einer Induktionsspule und zwei Metallkugeln, die durch einen schmalen Spalt getrennt sind. Der Empfänger ist eine Drahtschlaufe mit einem kleinen Spalt.
Wenn ein Hochspannungsimpuls angelegt wird, ionisiert das elektrische Feld zwischen den Kugeln die Luft und erzeugt einen Funken. Die Frequenz des Funkens hängt von der Eigenfrequenz des L-C-Kreises ab.
Durch die Schwingungen des elektrischen Feldes entsteht eine elektromagnetische Welle. Im Empfänger wird ein Funke bei der Resonanzfrequenz erzeugt.
Ersetzt man den Empfänger durch ein Blech, können stehende Wellen erzeugt werden.
Der Bereich zwischen Sender und Empfänger enthält eine Reihe von Knoten und Antiknoten.
Der Abstand zwischen zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Knoten und Antiknoten beträgt die Hälfte der Wellenlänge. So kann die Wellenlänge abgeschätzt werden.
Da Hertz die Wellenlänge und Frequenz kannte, schätzte er die Geschwindigkeit der Welle, die der Lichtgeschwindigkeit sehr nahe kam.

<ol>
	<li>OpenStax. (2019). Universitätsphysik Vol. 2. [Webversion]. Abgerufen von <a href="https://openstax.org/books/university-physics-volume-12/pages/699-Electromagnetic%20waves">Openstax, University of Physics Volume 2, Chapter 16: Electromagnetic wave</a>.</li>
</ol>

erzeugung elektromagnetischer strahlung

Der deutsche Physiker Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894) war der erste, der bestimmte Arten von elektromagnetischen Wellen im Labor erzeugte und detektierte. Ab dem Jahr 1887 führte er eine Reihe von Experimenten durch, die die Existenz von elektromagnetischen Wellen bestätigten und zeigten, dass sie sich mit Lichtgeschwindigkeit bewegen. Hertz verwendete einen Wechselstrom RLC (Widerstand-Induktivität-Kapazität) Stromkreis, der bei einer bekannten Frequenz in Resonanz geriet, und verband ihn mit einer Drahtschleife. Hohe Spannungen, die über den Spalt in der Schleife induziert wurden, erzeugten Funken, die sichtbare Beweise für den Strom im Schaltkreis lieferten und zur Erzeugung von elektromagnetischen Wellen beitrugen. In einem anderen Teil des Labors platzierte Hertz eine weitere Schleife, die mit einem anderen RLC-Kreis verbunden war und auf dieselbe Resonanzfrequenz abgestimmt werden konnte (ähnlich wie ein Radioregler) wie die erste Schleife. Dadurch konnten elektromagnetische Wellen empfangen werden. Der Funke wurde in der Empfängerschleife erzeugt, was darauf hinweist, dass elektromagnetische Wellen in Richtung der Empfängerschleife reisen. Hertz studierte auch die Reflexion, Brechung und Interferenzmuster von elektromagnetischen Wellen und bestätigte deren wellenartige Eigenschaften. Hertz konnte die Wellenlängen aus den Interferenzmustern bestimmen und mit Hilfe der Frequenzen die Ausbreitungsgeschwindigkeit mit der Gleichung v = f * λ berechnen. Hertz konnte damit beweisen, dass elektromagnetische Wellen mit Lichtgeschwindigkeit reisen. Die SI-Einheit für die Frequenz, das Hertz (1 Hz = 1 Schwingung pro Sekunde), ist zu Ehren nach ihm benannt.

Erzeugung elektromagnetischer Strahlung

Der deutsche Physiker Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894) war der erste, der bestimmte Arten von elektromagnetischen Wellen im Labor erzeugte und detektierte. ...

Education

Lehre

JoVE Core

Physik

Unit 1

Einheit 1

Electromagnetic Waves

Elektromagnetische Wellen

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

KERNBEGRIFFE UND KONZEPTE

hertz's spark gaps and radio waves

Heinrich Hertz used sparks and tuned circuits to show that electromagnetic waves could be produced in the lab. Starting in 1887, the German physicist ran experiments that confirmed electromagnetic waves exist and travel at the speed of light.

Hertz built an alternating-current RLC circuit. RLC stands for resistor, inductor, and capacitor. The circuit was set to a known resonant frequency and connected to a loop of wire. High voltage across the gap in the loop created sparks. Those sparks gave visible evidence of current in the circuit and helped generate electromagnetic waves.

Across the laboratory, Hertz placed a second loop with another RLC circuit. He tuned it to the same resonant frequency as the first circuit, much like tuning a radio dial. That receiver loop could pick up the electromagnetic waves, and a spark appeared in it. The spark showed that the waves were traveling toward the receiver loop.

Hertz also studied reflection, refraction, and interference in electromagnetic waves. These patterns confirmed that the waves behaved like other waves. From the interference patterns, he found the wavelengths. With the frequencies, he calculated the wave speed using v = fλ and showed that it matched the speed of light. The SI unit of frequency, the hertz, is named after him. One hertz equals one cycle per second.

Hertz's Spark Gaps and Radio Waves

electromagnetic waves

Maxwell’s Equations Behind EM Waves

Maxwell’s equations explain how electric and magnetic fields work together to create electromagnetic waves. James Clerk Maxwell brought together the ideas of Oersted, Coulomb, Gauss, and Faraday and built a single theory of electromagnetism. Together with the Lorentz force law, his equations describe the laws of electricity and magnetism. A key part of Maxwell’s work is the symmetry in the equations. Faraday’s law shows that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field. Maxwell added...

generating electromagnetic radiations

Heinrich Hertz used sparks and tuned circuits to show that electromagnetic waves could be produced in the lab. Starting in 1887, the German physicist ran experiments that confirmed electromagnetic waves exist and travel at the speed of light. Hertz built an alternating-current RLC circuit. RLC stands for resistor, inductor, and capacitor. The circuit was set to a known resonant frequency and connected to a loop of wire. High voltage across the gap in the loop created sparks. Those sparks gave...

the electromagnetic spectrum

Electromagnetic Waves in Everyday Technology

Electromagnetic waves are grouped by wavelength and frequency. This set of waves is called the electromagnetic spectrum. It includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, X-rays, and gamma rays. Radio waves have wavelengths from millimeters to kilometers. They are often used for audio communication, such as radios. In many cases, they come from alternating current in the wires of a broadcast antenna. Radio waves also carry AM and FM radio, cellular phone signals, and TV signals. <br...

electromagnetic wave equation

How Maxwell Linked Light to Waves

Maxwell's equations show how electric and magnetic fields behave in a vacuum, or empty space. They are written as differential equations and describe fields created by source charges, whether the charges are still or moving. These fields also act on a test charge, and its motion can be found with the right boundary conditions. The key question in empty space is what happens when there are no source charges. In the vacuum form of Maxwell's four equations, the first-order partial differential...

plane electromagnetic waves i

Transverse Fields in Electromagnetic Waves

Electromagnetic waves are made of electric and magnetic fields that move through space together. Maxwell's equations predict these waves, and they can travel in free space without a medium. The electric field acts on a stationary charge, while the magnetic field acts on a moving charge. For a wave traveling along the x-axis, the fields are written as Ey(x, t) and Bz(x, t). In free space, there are no free charges or currents, so the charge enclosed and current terms in Maxwell's equations are...

plane electromagnetic waves ii

Faraday’s Law in a Plane Wave

Faraday’s law can be used to link the electric and magnetic fields in a plane electromagnetic wave. Here, the wavefront moves in the x-direction at a constant speed. The goal is to show how the field strengths must be related for the wave to stay consistent with Faraday’s law. To apply the law, a rectangle of width a is placed with its area vector in the positive z-direction. The line integral is taken counterclockwise around the rectangle. One side lies outside the wavefront, so the electric...

propagation speed of electromagnetic waves

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Maxwell’s Equations and Light Speed

Electromagnetic waves follow Ampere’s law when there is no conduction current. A plane wavefront moves in the positive x-direction. To analyze it, a rectangle is placed in the xz-plane with its area vector pointing in the positive y-direction. The line integral around the rectangle is taken counterclockwise. The magnetic field is zero on some sides and perpendicular on others. It is parallel to one side, and that side gives a non-zero contribution to the integral. Because the left side of...

electromagnetic waves in matter

How Light Slows in Materials

Electromagnetic waves can travel through matter as well as through vacuum. Light is one example. It can move through air, water, or glass. When an electromagnetic wave passes through a dielectric medium, the equations that describe it change. In Ampere's law, the permittivity of free space, ε0, is replaced by the permittivity of the dielectric, ε. The vacuum permeability, μ0, is also replaced by the permeability of the medium, μ. The wave speed c in vacuum is then replaced by a lower speed, v,...

energy carried by electromagnetic waves

How EM Waves Transfer Energy

Electromagnetic waves transfer energy through their electric and magnetic fields. This energy can be easy to notice, like the warmth from the summer sun, or harder to feel, like the energy in gamma rays that can damage living cells. The fields in an electromagnetic wave can exert forces on charges in a system. They can move those charges and do work on them. Even if a wave is not absorbed right away, it still carries energy away from its source. If some of the wave energy is absorbed, the...

intensity of electromagnetic waves

Poynting Vector and Light Intensity

The Poynting vector describes the energy flux of an electromagnetic wave. It tells how much energy passes through a unit area in a unit time at a specific moment. For a plane electromagnetic wave moving along the x-axis, the energy flux depends on the peak electric field E0 and the peak magnetic field B0. For high-frequency waves, the energy flux changes very quickly with time. Visible light has a frequency on the order of 10^14 Hz, so its energy flux varies too fast to track directly. Most...

momentum and radiation pressure

Radiation Pressure in Light and Comets

Radiation pressure is the force that electromagnetic waves can exert on matter. It appears because light carries momentum, so an object that absorbs a wave feels a push in the direction the wave travels. This same force helps explain why sunlight can affect small particles in space. Maxwell predicted radiation pressure, and Nichols and Hull confirmed it in 1903. They used a torsion balance with mirrors suspended from a fiber inside a glass container. When they shone light on one mirror, the...

radiation pressure: problem solving

Radiation Pressure in Light and Space

Radiation pressure is the push that light can exert on matter. When an electromagnetic wave is completely absorbed by a surface, its energy density is transferred as momentum to that surface. The rate of momentum transfer on a surface perpendicular to the wave gives the force, and the force per unit area is the radiation pressure. A perfectly absorbing surface receives this pressure directly from the incoming wave. If the surface is perfectly reflecting, such as a metal surface, and the light...

standing electromagnetic waves

Electromagnetic Wave Reflection at Conductors

Electromagnetic waves can reflect from a conductor or a dielectric. When the reflected wave combines with the incoming wave, the result is a standing electromagnetic wave. This is similar to the standing waves formed on a stretched string. To see how this happens, consider a perfect conductor placed in the yz-plane. A linearly polarized electromagnetic wave moving in the negative x-direction strikes the surface. The electric field cannot have a component parallel to the surface of a perfect...

standing waves in a cavity

Electromagnetic Modes in a Microwave Cavity

Electromagnetic waves can form standing patterns inside a cavity. Household microwaves and lasers are common examples of this effect. When two conducting metal plates are placed parallel at the nodal planes, they create a space where standing waves can exist. The cavity between the plates works like a stretched string fixed at x = 0 and x = L. The distance L must be an integer multiple of half a wavelength. The wavelengths that meet this condition have matching frequencies, and each frequency,...

key terms and concepts

Learn how Heinrich Hertz used spark gaps, tuned RLC circuits, and interference patterns to prove electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light.

Hertz's Spark Gaps and Radio Waves | JoVE K12

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CHEM1.PS4.1

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Earth’s Place in the Universe

E-ESS1-2.

Travelling Waves

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Wave Parameters

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Equations of Wave Motion

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Graphing the Wave Function

Consider the wave equation for a sinusoidal wave moving in the positive x-direction. The wave equation is a function of both position and time. From the ...

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Velocity and Acceleration of a Wave

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Speed of a Transverse Wave

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Problem-Solving: Tuning of a Guitar String

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Know wave parameters (i.e. velocity, period, amplitude, frequency, angular frequency) as well as how these quantities are defined in the cases of longitudinal and transverse waves.    Know wave parameters (i.e. velocity, period, amplitude, frequency, angular frequency) as well as how these quantities are defined in the cases of longitudinal and transverse waves.  EXPLANATION: Standard 4.PS4.1 is a student’s introduction to waves. At this time, students address the properties of amplitude, wavelength and direction of a wave and principles of superposition of waves, but not by name. In 8.PS4.1, students revisit the topic adding frequency to their models and beginning to consider wave speed, but without mentioning factors affecting the speed of the waves. PHYS.PS2.3 includes discussion of rotational motion which can pair with discussions of simple harmonic motion to clarify angular velocity and angular speed. Discussions regarding the origin of waves can fully develop these ideas.

PHYS.PS4.1

Speed of Sound in Solids and Liquids

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Speed of Sound in Gases

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Deriving the Speed of Sound in a Liquid

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Propagation Speed of Electromagnetic Waves

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Consider a plane ...

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Characteristics of Simple Harmonic Motion

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Oscillations about an Equilibrium Position

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Energy in Simple Harmonic Motion

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Frequency of Spring-Mass System

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Describe parameters of a medium that affect the propagation of a sound wave through it. Describe parameters of a medium that affect the propagation of a sound wave through it. EXPLANATION: The focus of this discussion should be properties of the medium, specifically the density of the material. The density becomes a factor in optics and considering transmission of electromagnetic waves. Students can be led to make their descriptions by experimenting with coiled springs stretched to varying lengths. The topic of linear mass density can be used to explore analogous properties in the air.

PHYS.PS4.2

Reflection of Waves

When a wave travels from one medium to another, it gets reflected at the boundary of the second medium. A common example of this is when a person yells at ...

Propagation of Waves

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Standing Waves

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Modes of Standing Waves - I

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Modes of Standing Waves: II

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Understand that the reflection, refraction, and transmission of waves at an interference between two media can be modeled on the basis of the characteristics of specific wave parameters and parameters of the medium.  Understand that the reflection, refraction, and transmission of waves at an interference between two media can be modeled on the basis of the characteristics of specific wave parameters and parameters of the medium. EXPLANATION: The focus of this standard is on developing an understanding for the behavior of waves at a boundary. To demonstrate these principles, it is suggested that students create waves on a coiled spring or string and send these waves towards either a free or fixed end or through a different weight of string. For instance, wave can be created in a section of a lighter string then transmitted towards a point where that string terminates into a heavier segment of string. In doing so, it is possible to observe the effects on wave amplitude and a discussion of energy differences. Students should extend their observations of these mechanical waves to wave behaviors at other scales.

PHYS.PS4.3

Sound Waves: Interference

Sound waves can be modeled either as longitudinal waves, wherein the molecules of the medium oscillate around an equilibrium position, or as pressure ...

Interference: Path Lengths

Consider two sources of sound, that may or may not be in phase, emitting waves at a single frequency, and consider the frequencies to be the same.
Two ...

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Sound Waves: Resonance

Resonance is produced depending on the boundary conditions imposed on a wave. Resonance can be produced in a string under tension with symmetrical ...

Beats

The study of music provides many examples of the superposition of waves and the constructive and destructive interference that occurs. Very few examples ...

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Communicate scientific and technical information about how the principle of superposition explains the resonance and harmonic phenomena in air columns on strings and common sound devices. Communicate scientific and technical information about how the principle of superposition explains the resonance and harmonic phenomena in air columns on strings and common sound devices. EXPLANATION:  In 4.PS4.1, students examine the effects of superposition of waves, but do not explore the behavior of waves at boundaries. Building on 4.PS4.3, the behavior of a wave at a free or fixed boundaries can create patterns where successive waves produced by a source interact with those reflected off a boundary. Discussions should include general development of the idea of harmonics. Once established, this topic can be extended to the specific function of stringed instruments such as guitars of simple open or closed tubes. The phenomena of resonance can be produced using a tuning fork held above a section of rigid tubing which is lowered or lifted into a pail of water. Resonance can be heard clearly at multiple points, providing an opportunity to model the source of resonance and relate the resonance points to the wavelength of the wave produced. The phenomenon of beats can be used to provide an introduction to this topic as it too is an audible phenomenon. Quick demonstrations of beats can be performed without tuning forks using multiple open windows in a browser simultaneously playing different frequencies.

PHYS.PS4.4

James Clerk Maxwell formulated a single theory combining all the electric and magnetic effects scientists knew during that time, calling the phenomena his ...

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Evaluate the characteristics of the electromagnetic spectrum by communicating the similarities and differences among the different bands. Research and determine methods and devices used to measure these characteristics. Evaluate the characteristics of the electromagnetic spectrum by communicating the similarities and differences among the different bands. Research and determine methods and devices used to measure these characteristics. EXPLANATION: The visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum will be familiar to students, as will the ideas of x-rays, microwaves, and radiowaves. However, students often struggle to see these phenomena as multiple manifestations of the same principles. It may be beneficial to relate these discussions to the physiology of the human eye, specifically the function of the rhodopsin photopigment. As a demonstration: the light bulbs on the front of remote controls emit light outside of the visible spectrum; however, inexpensive cell phone cameras lack IR filters (as well as some front facing cameras on more current cell phones). Rendering the IR light visible can help student to understand that many devices function by capturing the energy of electromagnetic waves. An additional option would be the creation of a crystal radio using a germanium diode.

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dual-nature-of-electromagnetic-em-radiation

Dual Nature of Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation

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Interaction of EM Radiation with Matter: Spectroscopy

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Plan and conduct controlled scientific investigations to construct explanations of light’s behavior (reflection, refraction, transmission, interference) including the use of ray diagrams. Plan and conduct controlled scientific investigations to construct explanations of light’s behavior (reflection, refraction, transmission, interference) including the use of ray diagrams. EXPLANATION:  In PHYS.PS4.3 students examine the behaviors of mechanical waves moving through a medium. Though the terminology in this standard is comparable, this standard focuses on optics of light. Students should work with lenses and mirrors to build an understanding of the behaviors of light as it interacts with surfaces (reflection, refraction, transmission). In 4.PS4.1 and PHYS.PS4.1, students investigated interference patterns with mechanical waves. Using a pair of speakers and an online tone/frequency generator, it is possible to demonstrate that sound waves, like mechanical waves, can interfere with each other. In such a demonstration, students are able to hear variations in the volume of the sound as they walk in a straight line across the field of sound created by the speakers.

PHYS.PS4.6

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Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning behind the idea that electromagnetic radiation can be described either by a wave model or a particle model. Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning behind the idea that electromagnetic radiation can be described either by a wave model or a particle model. EXPLANATION:  Most students willingly accept the particle behavior of light. As early as first grade, students have experimented with the behavior of light and observed that shadows can be created if some of the particles of light are blocked. Introductory explanations of the photoelectric effect can provide more advanced evidence for the particle behavior. Properties of wave behavior can be demonstrated by observing interference patterns in Young’s double slit experiment. Simple models using strips of paper to represent waves can provide a more tangible experience to understand the interference phenomena.

PHYS.PS4.7

Hertz's Spark Gaps and Radio Waves

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