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Period: to
William Gilbert
Discovered thaat Earth was magnetic an theorized that electricity and magnetism were not the same. He also invented the electroscope, the first eletrical measuring instrument. The gilbert, a unit of magnetic potential, was named after him. -
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Develops Coulomb's Law, which defined the electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion. The coulomb, the SI unit of charge, was named after him. -
Alessando Volta
Discovers the electrochemical series and creates the first electric battery. The volt, a unit of electromotive force, was named after him -
Hans Christian Oersted
Discovered that an electric field that flow through a wire creates a circular magnetic field. The oersted, a unit of magnetic intensity, is named after him. -
André-Marie Ampère
Discovered that parallel wires repel or attract each other, depending on whether the current is running in the same (attract) or opposite (repel) direction. The amp, a unit of electrical current, was named after him. -
Gerog Ohm
Discoverd the relationship between voltage (V), current (I) and resistance (R). I = V / R -
Michael Faraday
Discovered ectromagnetic induction, the production of an electric current across a conductor moving through a magnetic field. The mesure of capacitance, the ability of a body to store charge in an electric field, is expressed by the farad, named after this scientist. -
Joseph Henry
Discovered ectromagnetic induction, the production of an electric current across a conductor moving through a magnetic field, but he was not recognized for his independent discovery because Faraday had already published his results. The SI unit of inductance, the henry, was named after him. -
Karl Friedrich Gauss
Constructed the first electromechanical telegraph and calculated the strength of Earth's magnetic fields. The gauss, a unit of magnetic field strength, is named after him. -
Wilhelm Eduard Weber
He discovered that the ratio of electrostatic to electromagnetic units equals the value of the speed of ligh, leading to the conjecture that light is an electromagnetic wave. The weber, named after him, is the SI unit of magnetic flux. -
James Clerk Maxwell
His four equations describe how electric charges and electric currents act as sources for the electric and magnetic fields; with the Lorentz force law, they form the basis of the electrical field of science and technology. -
Heinrich Hertz
Performed many experiments that helped explain reflection, refraction, polarization, interference, and velocity of electric waves. One of his most famous disoveries, later explained by Einstein, was the photoelectric effect, which occured when he noticed that a charged object loses its charge more readily when illuminated by ultraviolet light. The hertz, the SI unit of frequency, is named after him. -
Period: to
Nikola Tesla
Many innovations in applications of electromagnetism in technology, including the use of rotation magnetic fields, his famous Tesla coils, and radion transmitters. An SI unit of magnetic field strength, the tesla, is named after him. -
Hendrik Lorentz
Created the Lorentz force law, which says that the electric force on a charged particle is parallel to the local electric field. The magnetic force, however, is perpendicular to both the local magnetic field and the particle's direction of motion. No magnetic force is exerted on a stationary charged particle. Contributed to explaining the Zeeman effect and clarified some of Maxwell's work. -
Albert Einstein
Formulated the theory for the photoelectric effect, in which electrons are emitted from matter, such as metals and non-metallic solids, liquids, or gases, as a consequence of their absorption of energy from electromagnetic radiation of very short wavelength, such as visible or ultraviolet radiation. It stated that light can exist in small, particle-like quantities called photons.