Giacomo Bozzo

A ‘sparkling’ low-cost revisitation of the historical Hertz’s experiment

Electromagnetic phenomena involve abstract concepts and models that are particularly problematic for students, especially in the field of electromagnetic (EM) waves. In particular, for these abstract topics it is difficult to plan real experiments that offer the possibility to introduce the basic related concepts. A valid support might come from the revisitation of historical experiments, whose value have been demonstrated from an educational point of view. In this frontline we have planned an educational real-time experiment, which allows students to get in touch with the basic phenomenology of EM waves. It is a modern revisitation of the historical Hertzs experiment that offers the possibility (from a qualitative point of view) to reproduce the Hertzs ideas using low cost and easy to find materials, showing an easy way to generate and to detect an electromagnetic wave. Moreover, the same kind of low cost setup allows performing quantitative measures if coupled with a digital acquisition module, offering the possibility to characterise the main conceptual aspects of an electromagnetic wave, such as the signals dependence on the distance between transmitter and receiver or as the concept (otherwise abstract) of polarisation.