Learning Essentials

Before, electricity and magnetism were thought to be two unrelated concepts. It was until the discovery
of several scientists who showed that electricity and magnetism are inseparable ideas that greatly affect
each other.

Who are these scientists and what were their ideas about electricity and magnetism?

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was the first American who contributed in the field of electricity. Some of his findings
have essentially influenced our idea of electricity now. According to Franklin, electricity is a fluid that
passes from point A to B. When the fluid moves from A to B, there would be less fluid in A than in B; he
used the word negative, meaning less fluid and positive, meaning more fluid. Today, we know the
moving fluid as the electrons. Franklin was also the first to state the concept of conservation of electric
charge which states that the fluid cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be collected.

Franklin conducted an experiment to prove that lighting was an electrical phenomena. He used a kite
with a key attached to it, to attract lightning and indeed it did. This lead him to the idea and invention of
what is known as lightning rod. A pointed metal placed on top of a building whose end is connected to
the ground. The lightning rod serves as a pathway for the lightning to the ground instead of damaging a
house or building.
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb was a French physicist known in formulating an equation about the force
between two electric charges. According to his law known as Coulomb’s law, the force between electric
charges is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of
the distance between them. Aside from his law, Coulomb has invented several machines like the Torsion
balance which was used to measure the density of earth but was most effectively used to measure weak
forces.

Han Christian Oersted

Han Christian Oersted was a Physics teacher who accidentally discovered the connection between
electricity and magnetism. When he was lecturing about electric circuit to his class, a compass was
present on his table and he noticed the deflection of the compass needle when he turned the switch of
the circuit on and off. He knew that the compass needle is affected by the presence of a magnetic field
provided by a magnet, but there was no magnet around. This was the beginning of electromagnetism.
Oersted did further investigation and found out that a current-carrying wire produces a circular magnetic
field surrounding the wire and us the electric field ceases, the magnetic field ceases as well.
Andre-Marie Ampere

Andre-Marie Ampere was a French physicist inspired by the discovery of Oersted. After knowing that
electricity and magnetism are related, Ampere wanted to investigate the exact relationship of the two.
He performed several experiments that showed two current-carrying wires that are parallel to each
other and whose current are in the same direction attract one another and the two repel whenever the
direction of the current in each is opposite. These results lead him to formulate a law that
mathematically describes the magnetic force between two current-carrying wires known as Ampere’s
law.

Ampere did several inventions that helped improve the field of electromagnetism. One example would
be the first type of what we now called galvanometer that detects the presence of an electric current.
The unit for electric current was given the name ampere in honor of him.

Jean Baptiste Biot and Felix Savart

Jean Baptiste Biot and Felix Savart were French scientists who formulated an equation named after them
which tells about fundamental quantitative relationship that exists between electric current and
magnetic field. It was proven that a current-carrying wire produces its own magnetic field. Biot-Savart
law tells about the value of the magnetic field produce by a certain source, that this value is affected by
amount of current in a wire and the length of the wire. The amount of magnetic field produced is also
affected by the orientation of the magnetic field and electric field, if the two are 90 degrees with respect
to each other, magnetic field produced will be of highest value and decreases as the angle between the
two decreases as well and yields zero when the two lies parallel to one another.

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday was most famous for his discovery of electromagnetic induction which is the production
of electricity from changing magnetic field. Studying the works of Oersted and Ampere, Faraday was able
to show that a changing magnetic field produces electric field. His discoveries lead to many inventions
that greatly changed the way of life of people. He was able to invent the first of all the wonderful
machines used to generate electricity like electric motor, electric transformer, electric generator and
dynamo. He also has a law known as Faraday’s law of induction which states that the amount of
electricity produced is equal to the rate of change in the magnetic flux moving in the surface of a wire
loop.

James Clerk Maxwell

James Maxwell was a Scottish physicist best known for his four equations that tells about how electric
and magnetic interacts, propagates and are affected by other materials. He used Faraday’s and Ampere’s
findings and combined them to create four equations that mathematically describe the behaviour of
electricity and magnetism being considered as inseparable.
The four equations include Gauss’ law, Gauss’ Magnetism Law, Faraday’s Law, and Ampere’s Law.

Gauss’ law tells how electric fields acts around electric charges.

Gauss’ magnetism law states that the divergence of the magnetic flux density is equal to zero.

Faraday’s law states that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field

Ampere’s law states that a changing electric field produces magnetic field and a changing magnetic field
yields an electric field.

The four laws of Maxwell have revolutionized the world of Physics after Newton.

Recall that visible light is only one of the seven electromagnetic (EM) waves. Another type of EM wave is
the radio wave which is widely used for communication and transmission of information regardless the
distance of the sender and receiver. Radio waves are naturally created by astronomical bodies or
lightning but can also be created artificially to serve its purpose.

When and how was the first man-made radio wave created and who first generated it?
In 1865, James Clerk Maxwell published his theory about EM waves. According to Maxwell’s theory, EM
waves move at the speed of light, c=3x108m/s, and is created by oscillating electric and magnetic fields
moving perpendicular to each other, in which a changing electric field yields changing magnetic field and
vice versa.

The first person to succeed was Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. In 1886, Hertz was able to create the first man-
made radio wave by using induction coil, Leyden jar as a condenser and a spark gap.

Hertz' First Transmission of Radio Waves

The poles of the spark gap are made up of two 2-cm radius spheres. The picture below depicts the image
of Hertz’ set-up.

Inducing high voltage to the induction coil caused a spark discharge between the spark gaps. Relating
this to Maxwell’s theory, where changing electric fields or magnetic fields will produce EM waves, Hertz
thought that whenever a spark is produced, EM waves will be transmitted. To check if this was true, he
created a receiver made of looped copper wire whose ends were made of small knobs with small gaps in
between. He ran the experiment again and saw that a spark was produced at the receiver loop, which
means that EM waves were transmitted. His experiment was the first transmission and reception of radio
waves.
The Speed of Electromagnetic Waves

To calculate the speed of the EM waves, Hertz performed another experiment that aimed the radiation
into a wide metal sheet. A standing wave was formed from which he was able to measure the distance
between nodes which served as the wavelength (λ) of the EM wave while the **frequency** (f) was
calculated from the frequency of the oscillator. From these two quantities, Hertz was able to calculate
the speed of the EM wave (v = λf).

The speed of the EM wave was equivalent to the speed of light which served as a proof of Maxwell’s
theory. The frequency of a wave, which is the number of cycles created in a unit of time, was named
hertz, in honor of his name.

Add noteView Notes

- Correct - Wrong Quex