Andre Marie Ampere

Ampere was born in France in 1775. He was educated in Latin, French literature and science by his father. He was a good student, but soon discovered that his father did not know as much about mathematics as the young Ampere wanted, so he found a monk in Lyon who would teach him calculus.

His father was guillotined after the siege of Lyon during the French revolution, and so Ampere had to find a job. He started teaching mathematics in Lyon, then in Bourg, and then was made Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris.

It was when he was in Paris that he started to research physics and chemistry too. He identified fluorine and went on to classify many of the other chemical elements known at that time.

He also thought that light was in waveform, (which we now know to be true) not particle form, as had been previously suggested. He did a lot of work on the refraction of light (when it appears to bend, whilst looking into water).

After hearing about a combined theory of electricity and magnetism, Ampere went on to research in this field. He discovered electrodynamic (movement by electricity) forces very quickly and wrote a scientific paper about it soon after. He went on to do more research in this field, but it was Faraday, researching at the same time, who is given the credit for discovering electro magnetic induction.

We use Ampere's name today as a measurement of electrical current, although it is usually shortened to Amp.

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