By methodically placing a compass all around
an electrified wire, Faraday started to notice a pattern.
What everyone else at the time
had been taught was that forces travel in
a straight line. Faraday imagined that invisible
lines of force flowed around an electric wire,
and then he imagined that a magnet had similar
lines emerging from it, and if those lines
got caught up in this flow, it was a bit like
a flag in the wind.
But Faraday's great leap of he imagination
was to turn this experiment on its head. Instead
of an electrified wire moving a compass, he
wondered if he could get the static magnet
to move a dangling wire.
"I've never seen you like this, Faraday. You're
like a happy child."
"I'm shaking, Newman. Underneath, I'm shaking."
"You see, John? You see?" "Yes!"
This is the experiment of the century. It's the invention of the electric motor. He's inventing a new kind of physics here.
Although he didn't realize it at the time, Faraday
had just demonstrated the overarching principle
of energy. The chemicals in the battery had
been transformed into electricity in the wire,
which had combined with the magnet to produce
motion.
Behind all these various forces, there was
a common energy.
