Angelica Nicole E.

Villarta

10- ST. PAUL VI

Michael Faraday

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. Although his training was very basic, the laws of
electricity and magnetism are due much more to Faraday’s experimental discoveries than to any other
scientist. He discovered electromagnetic induction, which led to the invention of the dynamo, the
forerunner to the electric generator. He explained electrolysis in terms of electrical forces and also
introduced concepts such as field and lines of force, which not only were fundamental to understanding
electrical and magnetic interactions but also formed the basis of further advances in physics.

Heinrich Hertz

Hertz used a simple homemade experimental apparatus, involving an induction coil and a Leyden jar
(the original capacitor) to create electromagnetic waves and a spark gap between two brass spheres to
detect them. The gaps were difficult to see, and required that the he perform his investigations in a
darkened room. "For the sparks are microscopically short, scarcely a hundredth of a millimeter; they last
only about a millionth of a second. It almost seems absurd and impossible that they should be visible; but
in a perfectly dark room they are visible to an eye which has been well rested in the dark. Upon this thin
thread hangs the success of our undertaking," said Hertz. In later experiments, he was able to calculate the
speed of the radio waves he created, and found it to be the same as the speed of light. A great number of
subsequent developments, like radio and television, not to mention Wi-Fi, were spun out of his simple
demonstrations. Hertz was well aware of the extent of his contribution. "We perceive electricity in a
thousand places where we had no proof of its existence before. In every flame, in every luminous
particle, we see an electric process. Even if a body is not luminous, provided it radiates heat, it is a center
of electric disturbances. Thus the domain of electricity extends over the whole of nature."

James Clerk Maxwell

Maxwell described light as a propagating wave of electric and magnetic fields. More generally, he
predicted the existence of electromagnetic radiation: coupled electric and magnetic fields traveling as
waves at a speed equal to the known speed of light. In 1888 German physicist Heinrich Hertz succeeded in
demonstrating the existence of long-wavelength electromagnetic waves and showed that their properties
are consistent with those of the shorter-wavelength visible light. Faraday’s conception of electric and
magnetic effects laid the groundwork for Maxwell’s equations. Faraday visualized electric charges as
producing fields that extend through space and transmit electric and magnetic forces to other distant
charges. The notion of electric and magnetic fields is central to the theory of electromagnetism, and so it
requires some explanation.