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Georg Ohm
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Georg Ohm

TORIma Academy — Physicist

Georg Ohm

Georg Ohm

Georg Simon Ohm ( ; German: [oːm] ; 16 March 1789 – 6 July 1854) was a German mathematician and physicist. As a school teacher, Ohm began his research with the…

Georg Simon Ohm (; German: [oːm] ; 16 March 1789 – 6 July 1854) was a German mathematician and physicist. While working as a school teacher, Ohm initiated his investigations using the recently developed electrochemical cell, a device pioneered by the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta. Employing self-designed apparatus, Ohm discovered a direct proportionality between the potential difference (voltage) across a conductor and the resulting electric current; this fundamental relationship is now recognized as Ohm's law.

Georg Simon Ohm (; German: [oːm] ; 16 March 1789 – 6 July 1854) was a German mathematician and physicist. As a school teacher, Ohm began his research with the new electrochemical cell, invented by Italian scientist Alessandro Volta. Using equipment of his own creation, Ohm found that there is a direct proportionality between the potential difference (voltage) applied across a conductor and the resultant electric current; this relation is known as Ohm's law.

Biography

Early Life

Georg Simon Ohm was born into a Protestant family in Erlangen, Brandenburg-Bayreuth (then a territory within the Holy Roman Empire). His father, Johann Wolfgang Ohm, was a locksmith, and his mother, Maria Elizabeth Beck, was the daughter of an Erlangen tailor. Despite their lack of formal education, Ohm's father was a highly respected individual who had achieved a significant level of self-education, enabling him to provide his sons with an exceptional upbringing through his personal instruction. Out of seven children, only three reached adulthood: Georg Simon, his younger brother Martin, who subsequently achieved recognition as a mathematician, and their sister Elizabeth Barbara. His mother passed away when he was ten years old.

From an early age, Georg and Martin received instruction from their father, who cultivated in them a profound proficiency in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and philosophy. Between the ages of eleven and fifteen, Georg Simon attended Erlangen Gymnasium, where his scientific education was notably limited, a stark contrast to the exceptional instruction in these subjects provided by his father to both Georg and Martin. This educational dynamic led Karl Christian von Langsdorf, a professor at the University of Erlangen, to observe a resemblance between the Ohm family and the renowned Bernoulli family.

University Life

Concerned that his son was not fully utilizing his educational prospects, Georg Ohm's father arranged for him to go to Switzerland. In September 1806, Ohm subsequently secured a position as a mathematics teacher at a school located in Gottstadt bei Nidau.

In early 1809, Karl Christian von Langsdorf departed from the University of Erlangen to assume a new position at the University of Heidelberg. Ohm expressed a desire to resume his mathematical studies under Langsdorf's guidance in Heidelberg. Langsdorf, however, recommended that Ohm undertake independent mathematical study, proposing that he engage with the works of Euler, Laplace, and Lacroix. Ohm, somewhat reluctantly, accepted this counsel, resigning from his teaching position at Gottstatt Monastery in March 1809 to become a private tutor in Neuchâtel. For two years, he fulfilled his tutoring responsibilities while simultaneously adhering to Langsdorf's recommendation for self-directed mathematical study. Subsequently, in April 1811, he returned to the University of Erlangen.

Teaching Career

Ohm's extensive personal studies culminated in his doctorate, awarded by the University of Erlangen on October 25, 1811. He promptly joined the university faculty as a mathematics lecturer but departed after three semesters due to limited career prospects, as his salary proved insufficient for his livelihood. In January 1813, the Bavarian government offered him a position as a mathematics and physics teacher at a low-quality school in Bamberg, which Ohm accepted. Dissatisfied with his employment, Georg commenced writing an elementary geometry textbook, intending to demonstrate his capabilities. The aforementioned school closed in February 1816. Subsequently, the Bavarian government reassigned Ohm to an overcrowded school in Bamberg to assist with mathematics instruction.

Following his tenure in Bamberg, Ohm submitted his completed manuscript to King Wilhelm III of Prussia. The King, impressed with Ohm's work, offered him a position at the Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne on September 11, 1817. This institution was renowned for its strong science education, and Ohm's responsibilities included teaching physics alongside mathematics. The well-equipped physics laboratory provided Ohm with the opportunity to conduct experiments in the field. Given his background as the son of a locksmith, Ohm possessed practical experience with mechanical apparatus.

In 1827, Ohm published his seminal work, Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet (The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically). His academic institution, however, did not adequately recognize his contributions, leading Ohm to resign from his post. Subsequently, he applied to and was appointed by the Polytechnic School of Nuremberg. Ohm commenced his tenure at the Polytechnic School of Nuremberg in 1833, and by 1852, he had advanced to become a professor of experimental physics at the University of Munich.

In 1849, Ohm published Beiträge zur Molecular-Physik (Molecular Physics). In the preface, he articulated an aspiration to complete a second, third, and potentially a fourth volume, contingent on his longevity. However, upon discovering that a novel finding presented in his work had been independently anticipated by a Swedish scientist, he chose not to proceed with further publications. He reflected on this event, stating: "The episode has given a fresh and deep sense for my mind to the saying 'Man proposes, and God disposes'. The project that gave the first impetus to my inquiry has been dissipated into mist, and a new one, undesigned by me, has been accomplished in its place."

Ohm passed away in Munich in 1854 and is interred in the Alter Südfriedhof. A compilation of his family correspondence, published in a German volume, reveals his practice of signing some letters with the phrase "Gott befohlen, G S Ohm," which translates to "Commended to God."

Discovery of Ohm's Law

Ohm's law was initially presented in his seminal 1827 publication, Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet (The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically), which contained his comprehensive theory of electricity. Within this treatise, he articulated his law, stating that the electromotive force acting between the terminals of any circuit segment is equivalent to the product of the current strength and the resistance of that specific segment.

The aforementioned book commences with the requisite mathematical foundations for comprehending the subsequent content. Despite its profound influence on the theoretical and practical aspects of current electricity, the work initially encountered a lukewarm reception. Ohm posited his theory based on contiguous action, a concept that contrasted with the prevailing notion of action at a distance. He maintained that electrical communication transpired between "contiguous particles," a term he himself employed. The publication specifically addresses this concept, particularly by illustrating the distinctions between Ohm's scientific methodology and the approaches adopted by Joseph Fourier and Claude-Louis Navier.

Thomas Archibald has provided an analysis of the conceptual framework utilized by Ohm in formulating Ohm's law. Ohm's contributions marked the nascent stages of circuit theory, although this domain did not attain significant prominence until the close of the century.

Ohm's Acoustic Law

Ohm's acoustic law, also referred to as the acoustic phase law or simply Ohm's law in an acoustic context, postulates that the human ear perceives a musical sound as a composite of several constituent pure harmonic tones. It is widely acknowledged that this principle is not entirely accurate.

Research and Publications

His inaugural paper in 1825 investigated the reduction in electromagnetic force produced by a wire as its length increased. In 1826, he provided a description of electrical conduction in circuits, drawing parallels with Fourier's research on heat conduction. This paper further developed Ohm's derivation of results from empirical evidence, and notably in the second part, he successfully proposed laws that significantly elucidated the findings of other researchers in galvanic electricity. His most pivotal work was a pamphlet published in Berlin in 1827, titled Die galvanische Kette mathematisch bearbeitet. This publication, whose foundational ideas had appeared in the journals of Schweigger and Poggendorff during the preceding two years, has profoundly influenced the evolution of electric current theory and its applications. Ohm's name has been integrated into the lexicon of electrical science through Ohm's Law (first published in Die galvanische Kette...), which describes the proportionality of current and voltage in a resistor, and has been adopted as the SI unit of resistance, the ohm (symbol Ω).

Although Ohm's work exerted a substantial theoretical impact, it initially garnered limited enthusiasm. Nevertheless, his contributions eventually received recognition from the Royal Society, which awarded him the Copley Medal in 1841. He was subsequently elected a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1842 and became a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1845. Charles Wheatstone, to some extent, highlighted the definitions that Ohm had introduced within the field of physics.

Works

  • Fundamentals of Physics as a Compendium to His Lectures [Fundamentals of physics: Compendium of lectures]. Nürnberg: Schrag.Second Division, Special Physics [Volume 2 Special Physics], 1854.

    • Ohm (unit)

    References

    Works by or about Georg Simon Ohm.