Hans Christian Ørsted (; Danish: [hans kʁæsdjan
ˈɶɐ̯sdɛð]; often rendered Oersted in
English; 14 August 1777 – 9 March 1851)
was a Danish physicist and chemist who discovered
that electric currents create magnetic fields,
which was the first connection found between
electricity and magnetism. Oersted's law and
the oersted (Oe) are named after him.
A leader of the Danish Golden Age, Ørsted
was a close friend of Hans Christian Andersen
and the brother of politician and jurist Anders
Sandøe Ørsted, who served as Prime Minister
of Denmark from 1853 to 1854.
== Early life and studies ==
Ørsted was born in Rudkøbing in 1777. As
a young boy he developed an interest in science
while working for his father, who owned a
pharmacy. He and his brother Anders received
most of their early education through self-study
at home, going to Copenhagen in 1793 to take
entrance exams for the University of Copenhagen,
where both brothers excelled academically.
By 1796 Ørsted had been awarded honors for
his papers in both aesthetics and physics.
He earned his doctorate in 1799 for a dissertation
based on the works of Kant entitled The Architectonics
of Natural Metaphysics.
In 1800, Alessandro Volta reported his invention
of the voltaic pile, which inspired Ørsted
to investigate the nature of electricity and
to conduct his first electrical experiments.
In 1801 Ørsted received a travel scholarship
and public grant which enabled him to spend
three years traveling across Europe. He toured
science headquarters throughout the continent,
including in Berlin and Paris.In Germany Ørsted
met Johann Wilhelm Ritter, a physicist who
believed there was a connection between electricity
and magnetism. This idea made sense to Ørsted
as he subscribed to Kantian thought regarding
the unity of nature. Ørsted's conversations
with Ritter drew him into the study of physics.
He became a professor at the University of
Copenhagen in 1806 and continued research
on electric currents and acoustics. Under
his guidance the university developed a comprehensive
physics and chemistry program and established
new laboratories.
Ørsted welcomed William Christopher Zeise
to his family home in autumn 1806. He granted
Zeise a position as his lecturing assistant
and took the young chemist under his tutelage.
In 1812 Ørsted again visited Germany and
France after publishing Videnskaben om Naturens
Almindelige Love and Første Indledning til
den Almindelige Naturlære (1811).
Ørsted was the first modern thinker to explicitly
describe and name the thought experiment.
He used the Latin-German term Gedankenexperiment
circa 1812 and the German term Gedankenversuch
in 1820.
== Electromagnetism ==
On 21 April 1820, during a lecture, Ørsted
noticed a compass needle deflected from magnetic
north when an electric current from a battery
was switched on and off, confirming a direct
relationship between electricity and magnetism.His
initial interpretation was that magnetic effects
radiate from all sides of a wire carrying
an electric current, as do light and heat.
Three months later he began more intensive
investigations and soon thereafter published
his findings, showing that an electric current
produces a circular magnetic field as it flows
through a wire. For his discovery, the Royal
Society of London awarded Ørsted the Copley
Medal in 1820 and the French Academy granted
him 3,000 francs.
Ørsted's findings stirred much research into
electrodynamics throughout the scientific
community, influencing French physicist André-Marie
Ampère's developments of a single mathematical
formula to represent the magnetic forces between
current-carrying conductors. Ørsted's work
also represented a major step toward a unified
concept of energy.
== Later years ==
Ørsted was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1822
and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1849.He founded
Selskabet for Naturlærens Udbredelse (SNU),
a society to disseminate knowledge of the
natural sciences, in 1824. He was also the
founder of predecessor organizations which
eventually became the Danish Meteorological
Institute and the Danish Patent and Trademark
Office.
In 1829, Ørsted founded Den Polytekniske
Læreanstalt ('College of Advanced Technology')
which was later renamed the Technical University
of Denmark (DTU).In 1825, Ørsted made a significant
contribution to chemistry by producing aluminium
for the first time. While an aluminium-iron
alloy had previously been developed by Humphry
Davy, Ørsted was the first to isolate the
element via a reduction of aluminium chloride.
Ørsted died in Copenhagen in 1851, aged 73,
and was buried in the Assistens Cemetery.
== Legacy ==
The centimetre-gram-second system (CGS) unit
of magnetic induction (oersted) is named for
his contributions to the field of electromagnetism.
=== Toponomy ===
The Ørsted Park in Copenhagen was named after
Ørsted in 1879. The streets H.C. Ørsteds
Vej in Frederiksberg and H. C. Ørsteds Allé
in Galten are also named after him.
The buildings that are home to the Department
of Chemistry and the Institute for Mathematical
Sciences at the University of Copenhagen's
North Campus are named the H.C. Ørsted Institute,
after him. A dormitory named H. C. Ørsted
Kollegiet is located in Odense.
The first Danish satellite, launched 1999,
was named after Ørsted.
=== Monuments and memorials ===
A statue of Hans Christian Ørsted was installed
in the Ørsted Park in 1880. A commemorative
plaque is located above the gate on the building
in Studiestræde where he lived and worked.
The 100 danske kroner note issued from 1950
to 1970 carried an engraving of Ørsted.
=== Awards and lectures ===
Two medals are awarded in Ørsted's name:
the Oersted Medal for notable contributions
in the teaching of physics in America, awarded
by American Association of Physics Teachers,
along with the H. C. Ørsted Medal for Danish
scientists, awarded by the Danish Selskabet
for Naturlærens Udbredelse (Society for the
Dissemination of Natural Science), founded
by Ørsted.
The H.C. Ørsted Lectureship is awarded to
two prominent researchers annually.Here is
a list of some of the previous H.C. Ørsted
lecturers:
Dr. Jack Connerney, NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center, USA
Professor Michaël Grätzel, École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL
Professor Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Collège
de France, Nobel Laureate in Physics
Professor Ivar Giaever, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, Nobel Laureate in Physics
Professor Paul F. Hoffman, Sturgis Hooper
Professor of Geology, Harvard University
Professor Leroy Hood, William Gates III Professor,
Institute for Systems Biology
Professor Sir Harold Kroto, University of
Sussex, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Professor Hugo de Man, Catholic University
of Leuven
Professor Sir Roger Penrose, University of
Oxford
Professor Julius Rebek, Skaggs Institute for
Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute
Professor Cees Dekker, Nanophysics, TU Delft
Professor Subra Suresh, Materials Science
and Biological Engineering, MIT
Professor Everett Peter Greenberg, Microbiology,
University of Washington
Honorary Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas,
University of Cambridge
Professor Ahmed Zewail, California Institute
of Technology, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Professor Nathan S. Lewis, Chemistry, California
Institute of Technology
Professor Sajeev John, University of Toronto
Professor Howard A. Stone, Fluid Mechanics,
Princeton University
Professor of Physics and Applied Physics Lene
Vestergaard Hau, Harvard University
Professor Stanley N. Cohen, School of Medicine,
Stanford University
Professor Juan de Pablo, Chemical Engineering,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Professor Mario Molina, University of California,
San Diego, Nobel Prize Winner.
== Writings ==
Ørsted was a published writer and poet. His
poetry series Luftskibet ("The Airship") was
inspired by the balloon flights of fellow
physicist and stage magician Étienne-Gaspard
Robert. Shortly before his death, he submitted
a collection of articles for publication under
the title "The Soul in Nature". The book presents
Ørsted's life philosophy and views on a wide
variety of issues.
== See also ==
Oersted's law
James Clerk Maxwell
Michael Faraday
Thought experiment
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Brain, R. M.; et al. (2007). Hans Christian
Ørsted and the Romantic Legacy in Science.
Ideas, Disciplines, Practices. Boston Studies
in the Philosophy of Science, 241. Dordrecht.
pp. 273–338.
Christensen, D. C. (2013). Hans Christian
Ørsted. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-966926-4.
Bern Dibner (1962) Oersted and the discovery
of electromagnetism, New York, Blaisdell.
Ole Immanuel Franksen (1981) H. C. Ørsted
– a man of the two cultures, Strandbergs
Forlag, Birkerød, Denmark. (Note: Both the
original Latin version and the English translation
of his 1820 paper "Experiments on the effect
of a current of electricity on the magnetic
needle" can be found in this book.)
== External links ==
Media related to Hans Christian Ørsted at
Wikimedia Commons
Physics Tree: Hans Christian Ørsted Details
Interactive Java Tutorial on Oersted's Compass
Experiment National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
The soul in nature : with supplementary contributions,
London: H. G. Bohn, 1852.
Hans Christian Ørsted at Find a Grave
"Oersted, Hans Christian". Encyclopedia Americana.
1920.
