Radio detection and ranging has many practical uses, from aviation, ship navigation, weather prediction and scientific research. By firing certain electromagnetic waves and listening for echoes, one can obtain a picture of the surroundings.
In 1887, German physicist Heinrich Hertz experimented with Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. By generating electric waves with an oscillator, Hertz was able to detect and prove that radio waves were all around us. However, he found no use for the radio waves and it was up to other scientists to make use of this new evidence of radio waves. The first real implementation of radar was in 1904, when Christian Hülsmeyer detected a ship in the fog. However, it was not until 1935 that a British physicist, Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt put radar into aircraft. At that time, he was able to locate aircraft within a 27km radius. However this radar was very unreliable and had little sensitivity.
During World War II, real advances started to come......
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