Hans Christian Orsted
Hans Christian ÃÂÃÂrsted (
August 14,
1777 in
RudkÃÂøbing -
March 9,
1851 in
Copenhagen) was a
Danish physicist and
chemist, influenced by the thinking of
Immanuel Kant. In
1820 he discovered the relationship between
electricity and
magnetism in a very simple
experiment. He demonstrated that a wire carrying a current was able to deflect a magnetised
compass needle. ÃÂÃÂrsted did not suggest any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon, nor did he try to represent the phenomenon in a mathematical framework.
ÃÂÃÂrsted was not the first person to discover that electricity and magnetism are related. He was preceded in this discovery by 18 years by Gian Domenico Romagnosi, an Italian legal scholar. An account of Romagnosi's discovery was published in 1802 in an Italian newspaper, but it was overlooked by the scientific community.
In 1825 he made a significant contribution to chemistry by producing aluminum for the first time.
See also: James Clerk Maxwell, physics.
