Many must have often heard the word "ampere", instantly referring this concept to physics. An ampere is a unit of measure for the strength of an electric current. But have you ever wondered why and in whose honor the unit of current strength was named? Today we will present information about the biography of André Marie Ampère, an outstanding physicist and brilliant scientist, as well as his contribution to science, personal life, family and career.
Basic information from the life of a scientist
André Marie Ampère's short biography says that he was a French physicist and one of the founders of electrodynamics. He was also an established mathematician with an interest in other areas of science such as history, philosophy and the natural sciences. Born at the height of the French Age of Enlightenment, he grew up in an intellectually stimulating atmosphere. The France of his youth was marked by widespread developments in the sciences and the arts, and the French Revolution, which began when he was a youth, also had a significant influence in shaping his future life.
The son of a prosperous entrepreneur, hewas inspired for education, searching for himself and gaining knowledge from early youth, was fond of mathematics and sciences bordering on it. As a brilliant scientist with extensive and valuable knowledge in various fields, he also taught philosophy and astronomy at the University of Paris.
Interests
Along with his academic career, Ampère also engaged in scientific experiments in various fields and was especially intrigued by the work of Hans Christian Oersted, who discovered the connection between electricity and magnetism. Ampere's biography reflects how much he influenced science. Becoming a follower of Oersted, through diligent laboratory work, Ampère made several more discoveries in this area, which made a huge contribution to the development of electromagnetism and electrodynamics as sciences. Ampère is considered one of the founders of this branch of theoretical physics. Ampere's biography will be briefly outlined in this article.
André Marie Family
Ampère was born on January 20, 1775 to Jean-Jacques Ampère and Jeanne Antoinette Desoutier-Sarcy Ampère. Jean-Jacques was a successful entrepreneur. André Ampère had two sisters.
The scientist's father was a connoisseur of the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that young boys should avoid formal education and should instead "learn from the environment". Thus, he did not send his son to school and instead allowed him to enlighten himself with the help of books in his well-stockedlibrary.
As a child, Ampère was very inquisitive, which was good ground for the development of his further insatiable thirst for knowledge. Under the guidance of his father, he read books on mathematics, history, philosophy and natural sciences, as well as poetry. Along with his interest in the sciences, he was also interested in the Catholic faith as his mother was a very devout woman.
He was especially passionate about mathematics and started studying the subject seriously when he was 13 years old. His father encouraged his intellectual studies in every possible way, found specialized books on this subject for his son and arranged for him to receive mathematics lessons from the abbe Daburon. At this time, Andre began to study physics.
The French Revolution began in 1789, when André was 14. His father was drafted into the civil service by the new government and sent to a small town near Lyon.
Ampère's family suffered tragedy when one of his sisters died in 1792. Another misfortune for his family came when a Jacobin faction seized control of the revolutionary government in 1792 and guillotined Father André in November 1793. Experiencing these terrible losses, he left school for a year. Ampère began working as a private teacher of mathematics in Lyon in 1797. He turned out to be an excellent teacher, and students quickly began to flock to him in order to learn and become a follower of a talented teacher. His success as a teacher brought Ampère to the attention of Lyon's intellectuals - theywere amazed by the knowledge of the young man.
Career
In 1799 he found a permanent job as a mathematics teacher. Within a few years he was appointed professor of physics and chemistry at the École Centrale in Bourg-en-Bresse in 1802. During this time, Andre also explored mathematics and prepared for publication a work en titled "Investigations in the Mathematical Theory of Games", 1802.
Ampere became a teacher at the new, newly established Polytechnic School in 1804. In addition to numerous talents in various fields, he also had a gift for teaching. In this regard, André became a professor of mathematics at the school in 1809, despite the lack of a basic education in the broad sense of the term (after all, he studied individually). Ampère was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1814. Ampère's biography shows us that hard work is always rewarded.
He also did scientific research along with his academic career and taught disciplines such as philosophy and astronomy at the University of Paris in 1819-20.
Ampere was greatly impressed by Oersted's discoveries regarding electromagnetism, so he took over the research initiative and began to work on further discoveries. After careful experimentation, Ampère showed that two parallel wires carrying electric currents attract or repel each other, depending on whether the currents flow in the same or opposite direction.
Naturally gifted, havingmass of knowledge and skills in the field of exact sciences, Ampère applied mathematics in the generalization of physical laws from experimental results. After years of intense research and experimentation, Ampère published Reflections on the Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena Uniquely Derived from Experience in 1827. A new science, "electrodynamics" was named as such and summarized in this work, which became known as her seminal treatise.
This is a brief biography of André Ampère.
Main work
The scientist deduced a law (named after him) that states that the mutual action of two lengths of conductive wire is proportional to their lengths and the intensity of their currents.
Ampère invented the astatic needle, almost the most important component of the modern astatic galvanometer.
Awards and achievements
In 1827 Ampère became a member of the Royal Society and a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden in 1828. But this is just a drop in the ocean. The great scientist made an invaluable contribution to the development of science.
Personal life and legacy
André Marie Ampere married Catherine-Antoinette Carron in 1799. Their son was born a year later, they named him after his grandfather ─ Jean-Jacques.
However, a tragedy happened in a young family - the scientist's wife fell ill with cancer and died in 1803.
André married Jeanne-Francoise Poteau in 1806. This union seemed unsuccessful to many from the very beginning. Indeed, a couplebroke up shortly after the birth of her daughter.
Ampère died in the city of Marseille on June 10, 1836 from pneumonia. Ampere's biography is rather tragic if we consider areas of life that are not related to his professional activities.
André Ampère's brief biography states that his name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
Great achievements
The life of the greatest scientist is closely connected with scientific activity. Let's take a quick look at the 5 most important events in the biography of André Marie Ampère, concerning his scientific activity.
- Discovery concerning fluorine. In 1810, André-Marie Ampère suggested that hydrofluoric acid was a combination of hydrogen and an unknown element, which he said had properties similar to chlorine. He coined the term "fluorine" for this element, suggesting that F could be isolated by electrolysis. After 76 years, the French chemist Henri Moisan finally isolated fluorine (did it by electrolysis at the suggestion of Ampère.
- Offered his own version of element identification. In 1816, Ampère proposed to indicate the chemical elements according to their properties. Only 48 elements were known at the time, and André attempted to put them into 15 groups. He successfully grouped alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, and halogens. 53 years after the scientist's attempt to organize the elements, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published his famous periodic table.
- Invented the "right hand rule". André-Marie Ampèredeveloped a rule, known as the right-hand rule, to determine the direction in which the compass needle deflected relative to the direction in which the electric current flowed along the wire. In this rule, if the right hand of the observer is supposed to grasp the wire through which the current flows, with the thumb pointing along the wire in the direction of the current. Then the fingers curled around the wire indicate the direction in which the compass needle will deviate. Ampère's rule is still used by students to calculate the direction of magnetic field lines.
- Oersted experimentally pointed out the connection between electricity and magnetism in 1820. A short time later, André-Marie Ampère discovered that two parallel wires carrying an electric current repel or attract each other. It depends on whether their direction coincides or differs, respectively. Thus, Ampere showed for the first time that magnetic attraction and repulsion can be obtained without the use of magnets.
- André-Marie Ampère applied mathematics to his experiments with electromagnetism to formulate physical laws. The most important of them is Ampère's force law (formulated in 1823) - shows that the occurrence of attraction or repulsion between two wires carrying currents directly depends on the lengths and intensity of the current passing through them. The physical origin of this force is that each wire generates a magnetic field.
Cybernetics
There ismany definitions of cybernetics. Norbert Wiener, a mathematician, engineer and social philosopher, coined the word "cybernetics", which comes from the Greek language, meaning "helmsman". He defined it as the science of communication and control of living organisms and machines. Ampère, even before Wiener, called cybernetics the science of government. An important element of this science, Andre called the industry, which should study the laws, their origin and impact on society.
We reviewed the biography of Marie Ampère.
