Who is Hans Christian Oersted?
Anyone who has opened the google home page today must be wondering about Hans Christian Oersted. Not to be confused with another famous Hans Christian (Andersen) who wrote those wonderful fairy tales, Oersted was a Danish Physicist who did pioneering studies in electromagnetism. See a photo of the great scientist here and read more on his work to understand why Google has doodled him! Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/aug…
Today’s Google doodle commemorates a Danish physicist that has not enjoyed widespread fame. Hans Christian Ørsted (aka Oersted), born Aug 14, 1777 was a contemporary and friend of Hans Christian Andersen. In very geeky circles, he is known for observing that electric currents can induce magnetic fields, an important aspect of electromagnetism. On 21 April 1820, Ørsted made a casual discovery that spurred him to research ithe relationship between electricity and magnetisim. He noticed a compass needle moved from magnetic north when electric current from a battery was switched on and off. Ørsted published his findings, showing that an electric current produces a magnetic field as it flows through a wire. Want to learn more? Here are some resources: 1) Reproduce Ørsted’s original compass experiment online. 2) Learn more about magnetism with my site recommendations. 3) Wikipedia entry about Hans Christian Ørstedrsted. 4) More magnetism resources at SharingLinks.com. You should follow me on
