Early Life and Education
– Born on 20 January 1775 to Jean-Jacques Ampère and Jeanne Antoinette Desutières-Sarcey Ampère
– Raised in Poleymieux-au-Mont-dOr near Lyon
– Educated through self-study in his father’s library, influenced by Rousseau’s philosophy of education
– Exposed to French Enlightenment masterpieces such as Buffon’s Histoire naturelle and Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie
– Resumed Latin lessons and studied works of Euler and Bernoulli
French Revolution and Career
– Ampère began teaching himself advanced mathematics at age 12
– His father was called into public service by the new revolutionary government
– His father resisted the Jacobin faction and was guillotined in 1793
– Ampère married Julie Carron in 1799 and started his career as a mathematics teacher
– Found new opportunities for success under the Napoleonic regime
– Appointed a professor of mathematics at the École Polytechnique in 1809
– Held positions at the École Polytechnique and University of Paris
– Elected to the chair in experimental physics at the Collège de France in 1824
– Invited to join the class of mathematicians in the Institut Impérial
– Engaged in diverse scientific inquiries and wrote papers on various subjects
Work in Electromagnetism
– Ampère developed a mathematical and physical theory to understand the relationship between electricity and magnetism
– Showed that parallel wires carrying electric currents attract or repel each other
– Formulated Ampère’s law, which describes the mutual action of current-carrying wires
– Provided a physical explanation of electromagnetic motion and theorized the existence of an electrodynamic molecule
– Published his founding treatise on electrodynamics in 1827
Honours and Recognition
– Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1827
– Elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science in 1828
– Recognized by James Clerk Maxwell as the ‘Newton of electricity’
– Became a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Lett in 1825
– Highly respected and influential in the field of electromagnetism
Legacy
– The ampere is one of the standard units of electrical measurement, established at the 1881 International Exposition of Electricity.
– Other units named after Ampère’s contemporaries include the coulomb, volt, ohm, watt, and farad.
– Ampère’s name is inscribed on the Eiffel Tower, along with 71 other names.
– Many streets, squares, schools, and a Lyon metro station are named after Ampère.
– Ampère is also honored with a graphics processing unit microarchitecture, a mountain on the moon, and an electric ferry in Norway. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9-Marie_Amp%C3%A8re
André-Marie Ampère (UK: /ˈɒ̃pɛər, ˈæmpɛər/, US: /ˈæmpɪər/,French: [ɑ̃dʁe maʁi ɑ̃pɛʁ]; 20 January 1775 – 10 June 1836) was a French physicist and mathematician who was one of the founders of the science of classical electromagnetism, which he referred to as "electrodynamics". He is also the inventor of numerous applications, such as the solenoid (a term coined by him) and the electrical telegraph. As an autodidact, Ampère was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and professor at the École polytechnique and the Collège de France.
André-Marie Ampère | |
|---|---|
 Engraving of André-Marie Ampère | |
| Born | 20 January 1775 |
| Died | 10 June 1836 (aged 61) |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for | Ampère's circuital law Ampère's force law Ampère's right hand grip rule Ampèrian loop model Avogadro-Ampère hypothesis Monge–Ampère equation Discovery of fluorine Needle telegraph Solenoid |
| Awards | FRS (1827) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | École Polytechnique |
| Signature | |
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The SI unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere, is named after him. His name is also one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
