Walther Meissner discovered while working with Robert Ochsenfeld that superconductors expel relatively weak magnetic fields from their interior and are strongly diamagnetic. This phenomenon, commonly known as the Meissner effect or the...

Although he was not the first person to observe a connection between electricity and magnetism, Andre-Marie Ampere was the first scientist to attempt to theoretically explain and mathematically describe the phenomenon. His contributions...

John Ambrose Fleming was an electronics pioneer who invented the oscillation valve, or vacuum tube, a device that would help make radios, televisions, telephones and even early electronic computers possible. A brilliant innovator,...

At the turn of the 19th century, scientists were beginning to gain a rudimentary understanding of electricity and magnetism, but they knew almost nothing about the relationship between the two. Baltic German physicist Heinrich Lenz took...

Discovering how cathode rays behave in a magnetic field was a big step forward for scientists trying to understand the mysterious phenomenon. (Java tutorial)

In 1831, Michael Faraday carried out numerous experiments to prove that electricity could be generated from magnetism. He not only demonstrated electromagnetic induction, but also developed a good conception of the processes involved....

This lab was designed to have students figure out the formula for the force on a charge moving through a magnetic field. Then they are to see how the direction of the force is dependent on the direction of the charge's motion and the...

This is a quantitative lab that will have students look at the direction of the magnetic field from moving charges in a wire. They can also get an intuitive sense of magnetic field strength factors based on the intensity of the circles...

This lab was designed to have students look at the graphs for flux vs. time and electromotive force vs. time for a coil spinning in a magnetic field. Students will be able to vary the size of the coil, the rate at which the coil spins...

This lab was designed to have students test the factors that affect the acceleration of a metal bar that is carrying a current through a magnetic field.

This lab was designed to have students map out the flux as function of time for a coil spinning in a magnetic field. From their date they also calculate the electromotive force for each data point they collect. Finally, they graph the...

This lab was designed to have students test the factors that affect the path of charged particle in a magnetic field. Students will be able to adjust the mass and charge of the particle. They will be able to change the speed of the...

Learn how to make a simple compass right at home. [1 min, 21 secs]

Electromotive Force (EMF) and its sidekick, back EMF, are interesting electromagnetic phenomena that aren't really forces at all. (Java tutorial)

Leon Foucault, a French physicist much better known for his pendulum demonstrating the rotation of the Earth, also created in 1855 a device that illustrated how eddy currents work. (Java tutorial)

Maglev trains are making history right now.

Compasses had been steering people in the right direction for many centuries when, in the year 1820, one particular compass made a very different sort of revelation to an unsuspecting Danish science professor.

This nifty device, a kind of precursor to the Slinky, demonstrates how parallel wires attract.

Svante Arrhenius was born in Vik, Sweden, and became the first native of that country to win the Nobel Prize. The award for chemistry was bestowed to him in honor of his theory of electrolytic dissociation. Arrhenius also developed the...

Theoretical physicist Richard Phillips Feynman greatly simplified the way in which the interactions of particles could be described through his introduction of the diagrams that now bear his name (Feynman diagrams) and was a co-recipient...

Robert Andrews Millikan was a prominent American physicist who made lasting contributions to both pure science and science education. He is particularly well known for his highly accurate determination of the charge of an electron via...

An overview of the history, applications and science of superconductivity, including the Meissner effect, BCS theory, Type 1 and Type 2 superconductors and high-temperature superconductivity.

This is a Java tutorial showing the simple voltaic (or galvanic) electrical cell, which is the most basic type of "wet" cell and demonstrates the fundamental chemistry behind batteries.

It's hard enough to weigh something as itty bitty as atoms or molecules. Factor in that they're careening by faster than Jeff Gordon on steroids, and you get an idea what scientists are up against. Using comet particles from NASA's...