hertz, unit of frequency. The number of hertz (abbreviated Hz) equals the number of cycles per second. The frequency of any phenomenon with regular periodic variations can be expressed in hertz, but the term is used most frequently in connection with alternating electric currents, electromagnetic waves (light, radar, etc.), and sound. It is part of the International System of Units (SI), which is based on the metric system. The term hertz was proposed in the early 1920s by German scientists to honour the 19th-century German physicist Heinrich Hertz. The unit was adopted in October 1933 by a committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission and is in widespread use today, although it has not entirely replaced the expression “cycles per second.”