Hans Christian Oersted - the man thanks to whom electronics exists

During a lecture in 1820 as part of an academic course that dealt with both phenomena - electricity and magnetism, Ortes placed a compass near an active electric wire and it turns out that the compass needle pointed towards the wire

Hans Christian Ørsted, who was born in 1777 (exactly today, August 14) and died in 1851, is one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century and played an important role in the understanding of electromagnetism. In 1820 he discovered that a compass needle moves from magnetic north when an electric switch on a nearby wire is turned on.

This experiment showed that electricity and magnetism are related phenomena, a finding that led to the foundation of the theory of electromagnetism, and to research that later led to the developments of radio, television, and fiber optics. The unit that defines the strength of the electromagnetic field was named Oersted, after him.

As children, Hans and his brother Anders Sando Ørsted (later a law professor and politician) received education from their parents - Soren Christian and Karen. And in 1793 they were admitted to the University of Copenhagen.

In 1797 he passed the pharmacy exams with honors, and in 1796-7 he wrote outstanding works in aesthetics and medicine. Two years later he received a doctorate for a paper he wrote on Kent's philosophy. In 1800 he studied the galvanizers and in the years 1801-1804 he stayed in Germany and France thanks to scholarships he received. He met and was fascinated by the chemical philosophy of G. third'. Winterl, and Fichte's ideas.

About the universal reason for the unity of the forces of nature. On the other hand, he was also fascinated by the mathematical physics that was developed in the ZRP. These were the heyday of natural philosophy and romanticism, and under Ritter's influence, Örsted adopted an uncritical approach to the new currents, which he realized in a book he later published hurt his standing among his peers.

On his return home in 1805 he became a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he performed the first experiments in electric currents and acoustics. He is actually the founder of the field of physical sciences at the university. His activity at the university allowed him good laboratory conditions.

In 1812-13 Orsted made his second big trip outside of Denmark - in Germany, Belgium and France. He was still under the influence of the speculative philosophy of nature, but realized that it would not allow him to achieve a good exchange of ideas with Fichte and Schleiermacher. When he returned home he married Brigitte Ballum, who would later have five daughters and three sons. From 1815 until his death he was the secretary of the Royal Danish Academy of Science.

During an evening lecture in April 1820, Örsted discovered experimental evidence for the connection between electricity and magnetism. While he was preparing an experiment for one of the courses he was teaching, he discovered something that surprised him.

In Oersted's time, science was trying to find a connection between electricity and magnetism but the attempts failed. It was common to believe that electricity and magnetism were not related. When Orsted prepared his materials he brought a compass to an active electric wire and the needle changed its position from north and directed itself towards the wire. Oersted was impressed and repeated the experiment several times, each time the needle jumped towards the thread. This phenomenon was first discovered by the Italian jurist Gian Dominicano Romanioni in 1802, but his announcement was ignored.

Orsted did not have time to test the theory before the lecture, but during it he was convinced of the correctness of the idea. He also observed that the needle deflected in one direction when the current was applied in a certain direction and in the opposite direction when the direction of the current was reversed.

Oersted's discovery that electricity and magnetism are one phenomenon was immediately recognized in a time of many upheavals, although he left the continuation of research in the field of electromagnetism to others. Andre-Marie Ampere quickly repeated Orsted's experiments and formulated them mathematically. Oersted also discovered that not only is a magnetic needle deflected by an electric current but that an active electric wire is also deflected by a magnetic field, thus laying the foundations for the construction of the electric motor.