What is hans christian oersted famous for

Hans christian oersted contribution

Petersburg Academy of Sciences in He conducted research in the fields of electricity, acoustics, and molecular physics. At the age of twelve, he was forced to work behind the counter at his father's pharmacy. In , he was awarded the university's gold medal for his essay titled "The Boundaries of Poetry and Prose. In , his work "Investigations of the Identity of Chemical and Electrical Forces" was published in France, where he first proposed the idea of a connection between electricity and magnetism.

His reasoning was based on the observation that electricity produces light, sound, and heat. During the lecture, a compass needle placed near a wire carrying an electric current would move when the circuit was closed and return to its original position when the circuit was opened. This experiment provided the first experimental confirmation of the link between electricity and magnetism.

In July , he repeated the experiment using more powerful battery sources, which significantly increased the effect. He found that the force between a magnet and a wire carrying an electric current was directed perpendicular to the wire, rather than along the wire as initially believed.

Hans christian oersted contribution to electricity

The magnetic needle never pointed directly at the wire but was always tangential to the circles formed around the wire. This discovery became the foundation of the first fundamental law of electrodynamics. In , he was one of the first to propose that light is an electromagnetic phenomenon. He also independently rediscovered the thermoelectric effect in and constructed the first thermocouple.

He also conducted research in acoustics, attempting to discover the generation of electrical phenomena through air.