c3b7fbd9c91f9e7425d9f49949703881

1.

Gustav Ludwig Hertz

2.

Early Life and Education
· Born: July 22, 1887, in
Hamburg, Germany .
· Family: Nephew of the famous
physicist Heinrich Hertz
(discoverer of electromagnetic
waves) .
· Education: Studied at the
universities of Göttingen,
Munich, and Berlin .

3.

Key Achievement: The Franck-Hertz
Experiment
Between 1911 and 1914 at the
University of Berlin, Gustav
Hertz and James Franck
conducted
an
experiment
bombarding mercury atoms
with
electrons,
which
demonstrated that electrons
lose energy only in specific,
discrete amounts (quanta),
there by providing the first
direct experimental proof of
Niels Bohr's atomic model

4.

Nobel Prize and Honors
Gustav Hertz was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925
(granted in 1926), "for their
discovery of the laws governing
the impact of an electron upon
an atom," and he later received
further prestigious recognitions
including the Max Planck Medal
in 1951 and the USSR Stalin
Prize (2nd degree) in 1951.

5.

Legacy
The Franck-Hertz
experiment, which
confirmed the discrete
energy levels of the atom,
became a cornerstone of
quantum physics and is still
demonstrated in university
laboratories today. Gustav
Hertz's son and grandson
also became prominent
physicists, continuing the
scientific dynasty.