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Sunday,
April 1, 2012:
This is the day that we remember and celebrate the life of German
physicist
Heinrich Hertz. He is credited with proving that electricity
can be transmitted in electromagnetic (radio) waves. He lived just
a brief 36 years from 1857 to 1894, but made a huge impact on our world.
Back on April 1st, 1960, the radio
frequency spectrum numbering scheme was converted from "cycles per
second" to Hertz. This caused quite a bit of confusion among
scientists and the public alike. Most learned the new way within a
year or so. Einstein's Theory
of Relativity comes into play here as well, causing further uncertainty.
A throwback to the old days are radio dials labeled
with CPS (cycles per second), KC (kilocycles), and MC (megacycles).
If you should come across a relic radio
built before 1960 and want to tune into your favorite radio station, you
need to convert the station frequency from say, 103.5 MHz (Megahertz),
to Megacycles. There is a mathematical formula that does the work
for you. Subtract 10 from the Frequency in MHz and then take
the square root and multiply that number by itself. Add 10 to get
the frequency in Megacycles. That will
get you pretty close.
For the math challenged, there is a graph
here to help with the conversion.
Remember, Heinrich Hertz is to blame for all of this. |
