Hertz

The hertz which has the symbol: Hz is the derived unit of frequency in the International System of Units that is known as the SI and is defined as one cycle per second. It is said to be named after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. 

Scientist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the waves which are electromagnetic and this was predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism. The unit that is of frequency is the cycle per second was named "hertz" in his honour.

Here, we are going to discover a few more things about the topic.

Why is Hertz Used?

In the field of physics. hertz which is often denoted by the symbol ‘Hz’ can be defined as the derived unit of frequency. We can say this as per the International System of Units. It is an important thing to note that frequencies are often expressed in multiples of Hertz which is such as kilohertz that is denoted by kHz, megahertz denoted by MHz, gigahertz is denoted by GHz. The SI Unit based on the unit of the Hertz is second-1 or we can say that s-1. We need to notice that the Hertz is an SI derived unit.

In English, we can say that "hertz" is also used as the plural form. MHz is the megahertz or 106 Hz. Similarly, GHz that is gigahertz is 109 Hz and THz or terahertz is 1012 Hz.100 Hz means "one hundred cycles per second", and so on. The unit usually may be applied to any event which is periodic— for example, we can say that a clock might be said to tick at 1 Hz or we can say that a human heart might be said to beat at 1.2 Hz.

Hertz as Unit of Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency which emphasizes the contrast to the frequency that is the spatial and angular frequency. We can say that frequency is measured in hertz that is denoted by Hz which is equal to one occurrence of a repeating event per second. 

The period is said to be the duration of time of one cycle in a repeating event so the period is said to be the reciprocal of the frequency. For example, we can say that if a newborn baby's heart beats at a frequency of 120 times a minute then it is 2 hertz is its period denoted by the letter T,  the time interval which is between beats is half a second that is said to be 60 seconds divided by 120 beats. 

Hertz Applications

Frequency is an important parameter that is used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillation and the phenomenon of vibratory vibrations such as mechanical vibrations of the audio signals or the sound radio waves and light.

The frequency of any phenomenon can be expressed in hertz but we can say that the term is used most frequently in connection with alternating currents which are electric and the waves which are electromagnetic such as light, radar, etc and sound as well. It is said to be a part of the International System of Units based on the metric system. The unit was adopted in October 1933 by a committee of the International Commission of Electrotechnical and is in widespread use today that is said to be although it has not entirely replaced the expression which is the cycles per second.

An older method that is of measuring the frequency of rotating or vibrating objects is to use a stroboscope. This is said to be intense repetitively flashing the light that is strobe light whose frequency can be adjusted with a calibrated timing circuit.