In 1886, the German physicist Heinrich Hertz first demonstrated the existence of radio waves, which in honor of him are also called Hertzian waves. His purpose was to test the electromagnetic theory proposed a couple of decades earlier by James Clerk Maxwell. The curious thing is that when his students asked him what the applications might be of his discovery, he replied: “It’s of no use whatsoever.” Hertz deserved a ten as a scientist, but a zero as a futurist. Today his waves are ubiquitous, and not just in our communications – we even use them to heat food.
Categories