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The history of electromagnetic theory begins with ancient measures to understand atmospheric electricity, in particular lightning. People then had little understanding of electricity, and were unable to explain the phenomena.
- 600 BCE: Sparking Amber in Ancient Greece
- 221–206 BCE: Chinese Lodestone Compass
- Gilbert and The Lodestone
- Franklin's Kite Experiments
- Coulomb's Law
- Galvanic Electricity
- Voltaic Electricity
- Magnetic Fields
- Ampere's Electrodynamics
- Faraday and Electromagnetic Induction
The earliest writings about electromagnetism were in 600 BCE, when the ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician and scientist Thales of Miletus described his experiments rubbing animal fur on various substances such as amber. Thales discovered that amber rubbed with fur attracts bits of dust and hairs that create static electricity, and if he rubbe...
The magnetic compassis an ancient Chinese invention, likely first made in China during the Qin dynasty, from 221 to 206 BCE. The compass used a lodestone, a magnetic oxide, to indicate true north. The underlying concept may not have been understood, but the ability of the compass to point true north was clear.
Toward the late 16th century, the "founder of electrical science" English scientist William Gilbert published "De Magnete" in Latin translated as "On the Magnet" or "On the Lodestone." Gilbert was a contemporary of Galileo, who was impressed by Gilbert's work. Gilbert undertook a number of careful electrical experiments, in the course of which he d...
American founding father Benjamin Franklinis famous for the extremely dangerous experiment he ran, of having his son fly a kite through a storm-threatened sky. A key attached to the kite string sparked and charged a Leyden jar, thus establishing the link between lightning and electricity. Following these experiments, he invented the lightning rod. ...
In 1785, French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb developed Coulomb's law, the definition of the electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion. He found that the force exerted between two small electrified bodies is directly proportional to the product of the magnitude of charges and varies inversely to the square of the distance between thos...
In 1780, Italian professor Luigi Galvani (1737–1790) discovered that electricityfrom two different metals causes frog legs to twitch. He observed that a frog's muscle, suspended on an iron balustrade by a copper hook passing through its dorsal column, underwent lively convulsions without any extraneous cause. To account for this phenomenon, Galvani...
Italian physicist, chemist and inventor Alessandro Volta(1745–1827) read of Galvani's research and in his own work discovered that chemicals acting on two dissimilar metals generate electricity without the benefit of a frog. He invented the first electric battery, the voltaic pile battery in 1799. With the pile battery, Volta proved that electricit...
In 1820, Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Oersted (1777–1851) discovered what would become known as Oersted's Law: that an electric currentaffects a compass needle and creates magnetic fields. He was the first scientist to find the connection between electricity and magnetism.
French physicist Andre Marie Ampere (1775–1836) found that wires carrying current produce forces on each other, announcing his theory of electrodynamics in 1821. Ampere's theory of electrodynamics states that two parallel portions of a circuit attract one another if the currents in them are flowing in the same direction, and repel one another if th...
English scientist Michael Faraday(1791–1867) at the Royal Society in London developed the idea of an electric field and studied the effect of currents on magnets. His research found that the magnetic field created around a conductor carried a direct current, thereby establishing the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Far...
- Mary Bellis
A theory of electromagnetism, known as classical electromagnetism, was developed by several physicists during the period between 1820 and 1873, when James Clerk Maxwell's treatise was published, which unified previous developments into a single theory, proposing that light was an electromagnetic wave propagating in the luminiferous ...
Learn how electromagnetism, a type of physical interaction between electrically charged particles, was discovered by scientists such as Oersted, Ampere and Maxwell. Explore the experiments, theories and discoveries that shaped the field of electromagnetism.
Learn about the science of charge and the forces and fields associated with it. Explore the history and development of electromagnetism, from Faraday and Maxwell to Einstein and beyond.
The earliest extant European reference is by Alexander Neckam (died 1217) of England. The first experiments with magnetism are attributed to Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt, a French Crusader and engineer.
Although little of major importance was added to electromagnetic theory in the 19th century after Maxwell, the discovery of the electron in 1898 opened up an entirely new area of study: the nature of electric charge and of matter itself.
