2nd Quarter: Physics Assignment

Peña, Raquel D. August 15, 2019

10 - Uprightness Science
1. Who are the following scientists:
a. Marie Ampere
André-Marie Ampère, (born January 22, 1775, Lyon, France—died June 10, 1836, Marseille),
French physicist who founded and named the science of electrodynamics, now known as
electromagnetism. His name endures in everyday life in the ampere, the unit for measuring electric
current.
Shank, J. (n.d.). André-Marie Ampère. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andre-Marie-Ampere

b. Hans Christian Orsted

Hans Christian Ørsted, Ørsted also spelled Oersted, (born August 14, 1777, Rudkøbing,
Denmark—died March 9, 1851, Copenhagen), Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that
electric current in a wire can deflect a magnetized compass needle, a phenomenon the importance of
which was rapidly recognized and which inspired the development of electromagnetic theory.
In 1806 Ørsted became a professor at the University of Copenhagen, where his first physical
researches dealt with electric currents and acoustics. During an evening lecture in April 1820, Ørsted
discovered that a magnetic needle aligns itself perpendicularly to a current-carrying wire, definite
experimental evidence of the relationship between electricity and magnetism.
Britannica, T. E. (2019, August 10). Hans Christian Ørsted.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hans-
Christian-Orsted

c. James Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell, (born June 13, 1831, Edinburgh, Scotland—died November 5, 1879,
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England), Scottish physicist best known for his formulation of
electromagnetic theory. He is regarded by most modern physicists as the scientist of the 19th century
who had the greatest influence on 20th-century physics, and he is ranked with Sir Isaac Newton and
Albert Einstein for the fundamental nature of his contributions. In 1931, on the 100th anniversary of
Maxwell’s birth, Einstein described the change in the conception of reality in physics that resulted
from Maxwell’s work as “the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since
the time of Newton.”
Domb, C. (n.d.). James Clerk Maxwell. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Clerk-Maxwell

d. Heinrich Hertz
Heinrich Hertz, in full Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, (born February 22, 1857, Hamburg [Germany]—
died January 1, 1894, Bonn, Germany), German physicist who showed that Scottish physicist James
Clerk Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism was correct and that light and heat are electromagnetic
radiations.
Britannica, T. E. (n.d.). Heinrich Hertz. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Heinrich-Hertz

e. Michael Faraday
Faraday, (born September 22, 1791, Newington, Surrey, England—died August 25, 1867,
Hampton Court, Surrey), English physicist and chemist whose many experiments contributed greatly
to the understanding of electromagnetism.
Williams, L. P. (n.d.). Michael Faraday. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michael-Faraday
2. Identify the contribution of these scientists in the development of the electromagnetic theory
a. Marie Ampere
In the early autumn of 1820, Ampère, who was now 45 years old and whose previous scientific
work would have appeared only as footnotes in textbooks, became aware through François Arago of
Hans Christian Ørsted‘s attempts to deflect a magnetic needle by electric current. Ampère repeated
the experiment and recognized that Ørsted had not considered the deflection of the magnet by the
earth’s magnetic field. With an improved test arrangement, Ampère was now able to determine that
the magnetic needle was always perpendicular to the conductor through which the current flowed.
Ampère now assumed as a model hypothesis that every magnetism was caused by electric currents
and that currents generate magnetic fields. He tested his hypothesis – hypothetically-deductively –
between September 18 and November 2, 1820 and was able to prove in successive experiments that
two current-carrying conductors exert an attraction force on each other when the electrical current
direction is the same in both conductors and that they exert a repulsive force on each other when the
current direction is opposite. Ampère constructed a device for measuring current, which he called a
galvanometer (regardless of Ampère, Johann Schweigger did this in Germany). André-Marie
Ampère refined his hypothesis by assuming that each magnet contains many molecules, each
generating a small circular current (Ampère’s molecular currents to explain magnetism). He
recognized that the flowing electricity is the actual cause of magnetism.
Tietz, T. (2019, January 20). André-Marie Ampère and
Electromagnetism. Retrieved from http://scihi.org/andre-
marie-ampere-electromagnetism/
b. Hans Christian Orsted
On 21 April 1820, during a lecture, Ørsted noticed a compass needle deflected from magnetic
north when an electric current from a battery was switched on and off, confirming a direct
relationship between electricity and magnetism. His initial interpretation was that magnetic effects
radiate from all sides of a wire carrying an electric current, as do light and heat. Three months later
he began more intensive investigations and soon thereafter published his findings, showing that an
electric current produces a circular magnetic field as it flows through a wire. This discovery was not
due to mere chance, since Ørsted had been looking for a relation between electricity and magnetism
for several years. The special symmetry of the phenomenon was possibly one of the difficulties that
retarded the discovery.

Sack, H. (2019, March 09). Hans Christian Ørsted connecting

Electricity and Magnetism. Retrieved from
http://scihi.org/hans-christian-orsted-electricity-magnetism/
c. James Maxwell
His most prominent achievement was formulating a set of equations that united previously
unrelated observations, experiments, and equations of electricity, magnetism, and optics into a
consistent theory. According to his theory he has demonstrated that electricity, magnetism and light
are all manifestations of the same phenomenon, namely the electromagnetic field. This has been
called the “second great unification in physics”, after the first one realised by Isaac Newton.
Despite the fact, that James Clerk Maxwell made many influential publications on a variety of
scientific fields, his most important research area was the electricity. His greatest results were the
extension of Michael Faraday’s and André-Marie Ampère’s researches on magnetism and electricity.
He combined their numerous differential equations to very few ones making history as the Maxwell
Equations. They were published in 1864 at the Royal Society, of which Maxwell has been a fellow
member for several years, and they describe the behavior of magnetic and electric fields and their
interaction with matter. Also, the brilliant physicist predicted waves of swinging electric and
magnetic fields, moving through a vacuum. His predictions were later verified by Heinrich Hertz and
depicted the foundations of radio technology.
Tietz, T. (2014, November 21). James Clerk Maxwell and the
Electromagnetic Fields. Retrieved from http://scihi.org/james-
clerk-maxwell-and-the-electromagnetic-fields/
d. Heinrich Hertz
On November 13, 1886, German physicist Heinrich Hertz succeeded to transmit electromagnetic
waves from a sender to a receiver in Karlsruhe. Hertz conclusively proved the existence of the
electromagnetic waves theorized by James Clerk Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory of light.The unit
of frequency – cycle per second – was named the “hertz” in his honor.
Tietz, T. (2018, November 13). Heinrich Hertz and the
Successful Transmission of Electromagnetic Waves. Retrieved
from http://scihi.org/heinrich-hertz-electromagnetic-waves/

e. Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) is probably best known for his discovery of electromagnetic
induction, his contributions to electrical engineering and electrochemistry or due to the fact that he
was responsible for introducing the concept of field in physics to describe electromagnetic
interaction. But perhaps it is not so well known that he also made fundamental contributions to the
electromagnetic theory of light.
In 1845, just 170 years ago, Faraday discovered that a magnetic field influenced polarized light –
a phenomenon known as the magneto-optical effect or Faraday effect. To be precise, he found that
the plane of vibration of a beam of linearly polarized light incident on a piece of glass rotated when a
magnetic field was applied in the direction of propagation of the beam. This was one of the first
indications that electromagnetism and light were related. The following year, in May 1846, Faraday
published the article Thoughts on Ray Vibrations, a prophetic publication in which he speculated
that light could be a vibration of the electric and magnetic lines of force.
Faraday and the Electromagnetic Theory of Light. (2018,
August 30). Retrieved from
https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/leading-
figures/faraday-electromagnetic-theory-light/