Michael Faraday
Man of Science & Man of God Michael Faraday was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. Although Faraday received little formal education, he was one of the most influential scientists in history BORN:22 SEPTEMBER, 1791, NEWINGTON BUTTS, ENGLAND DIED:AUGUST 25, 1867, HAMPTON COURT, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND Nationality : English, a westman |
Michael Faraday Video
The son of a poor and very religious family, Faraday (1791–1867) received little formal education. He was apprenticed to a bookbindery in London, however, and read many of the books brought there for binding, including the “electricity” section of the Encyclopedia Britannica and Jane Marcet’s Conversations on Chemistry. He was also among the young Londoners who pursued an interest in science by gathering to hear talks at the City Philosophical Society.
One of the bookbinder’s customers gave Faraday free tickets to lectures given by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution, and after attending, Faraday conceived the goal of working for the great scientist. He took the notes he had made of Davy’s lecture and bound into a book. On the basis of Faraday’s carefully taken notes of Davy’s lectures, he was hired by Davy in 1813. His first assignment was to accompany Sir Humphry and his wife on a tour of the Continent, during which he sometimes had to be a personal servant to Lady Davy. In August 1831 Faraday showed that a changing magnetic field could induce an electric current. Faraday formulated that electromotive force produced around a closed path is proportional to the rate of change of the magnetic flux through any surface bounded by that path. He experimented by wrapping two insulated coils of wire around an iron ring. He found that, upon passing a current through one coil, a momentary current was induced in the other coil— mutual induction. If he moved a magnet through a loop of wire, an electric current flowed in that wire. The current also flowed if the loop was moved over a stationary magnet. Changing a magnetic field produces an electric field. This became Faraday’s Law when it was modeled mathematically by James Clerk Maxwell. Faraday’s Law became one of Maxwell’s equations, which have since evolved into field theory. Faraday would later use the principles to construct the electric dynamo. The principles of electromagnetic induction are used in many applications, such as inductive charging, transformers, electric motors, and generators.
The son of a poor and very religious family, Faraday (1791–1867) received little formal education. He was apprenticed to a bookbindery in London, however, and read many of the books brought there for binding, including the “electricity” section of the Encyclopedia Britannica and Jane Marcet’s Conversations on Chemistry. He was also among the young Londoners who pursued an interest in science by gathering to hear talks at the City Philosophical Society.
One of the bookbinder’s customers gave Faraday free tickets to lectures given by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution, and after attending, Faraday conceived the goal of working for the great scientist. He took the notes he had made of Davy’s lecture and bound into a book. On the basis of Faraday’s carefully taken notes of Davy’s lectures, he was hired by Davy in 1813. His first assignment was to accompany Sir Humphry and his wife on a tour of the Continent, during which he sometimes had to be a personal servant to Lady Davy. In August 1831 Faraday showed that a changing magnetic field could induce an electric current. Faraday formulated that electromotive force produced around a closed path is proportional to the rate of change of the magnetic flux through any surface bounded by that path. He experimented by wrapping two insulated coils of wire around an iron ring. He found that, upon passing a current through one coil, a momentary current was induced in the other coil— mutual induction. If he moved a magnet through a loop of wire, an electric current flowed in that wire. The current also flowed if the loop was moved over a stationary magnet. Changing a magnetic field produces an electric field. This became Faraday’s Law when it was modeled mathematically by James Clerk Maxwell. Faraday’s Law became one of Maxwell’s equations, which have since evolved into field theory. Faraday would later use the principles to construct the electric dynamo. The principles of electromagnetic induction are used in many applications, such as inductive charging, transformers, electric motors, and generators.