Google Doodle Honors Hertz

Today's Google Doodle is a wave form. This is to commemorate German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, born 155 years ago today. Hertz proved by experiment the existence of electromagnetic waves. His research led to the development of radio, TV, and radar, although he dismissed its importance at the time. Hertz' name even became a unit of frequency, abbreviated at Hz.
Despite this global fame, the Nazis tried to expunge Hertz's name from history. While Hertz identified as a Lutheran, his father grew up as a Jew.

"Hertz’s reputation was actively denigrated by the Nazis, who forced his wife and daughters to flee Germany because, despite strong Lutheran roots, they were considered Jews," writes the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in its profile of Hertz. "One Nazi functionary attempted to overturn the use of the term 'Hertz,'... He suggested to the Physical Society of Berlin that instead they use the term 'Helmholtz,' [after Hertz's teacher Hermann von Helmholtz] which would cleverly maintain the abbreviation 'Hz' for the benefit of foreign colleagues. Despite the climate of anti-Semitism, German scientists refused to go along with this plan. 'Hertz' remained and remains in use both in Germany and around the world."

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Also: the logo is confusing some people.

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