Theodore Maiman built the world's first operable laser. Ironically, Maiman's first paper announcing this momentous achievement, which many other scientists had been racing to complete themselves, was rejected. Since then, however, lasers...

Swiss physicist Heinrich Rohrer co-invented the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a non-optical instrument that allows the observation of individual atoms in three dimensions, with Gerd Binnig. The achievement garnered the pair half...

If you want to understand electricity, you first need to know a little about matter, atoms and electrons.

Born in Palo Alto, California, and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts - homes to Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively - you could say Eric Cornell was destined to become a renowned scientist. And while he...

The discovery of radio waves, which was widely seen as confirmation of James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory and paved the way for numerous advances in communication technology, was made by German physicist Heinrich Hertz. In the...

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,...

Enrico Fermi was a titan of twentieth-century physics. He outlined the statistical laws that govern the behavior of particles that abide by the Pauli exclusion principle and developed a theoretical model of the atom in his mid-twenties....

Siegmund Loewe was a German engineer and businessman that developed vacuum tube forerunners of the modern integrated circuit. He pioneered both radio and television broadcasting, and the company he established with his brother, David...

Contains brief biographical information on Michael Faraday, as well as the text of the following lectures delivered by Faraday: The Force of Gravitation, Gravitation-Cohesion, Cohesion-Chemical Affinity, Chemical Affinity-Heat,...

English chemist Sir William Crookes (1832 - 1919) invented the Crookes tube to study gases, which fascinated him. His work also paved the way for the revolutionary discovery of the electron and the invention of X-ray machines.

For a man whose career involved the entire known universe, John Kraus had a remarkably insular upbringing. He was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in physics, all at the...

Like resistance, reactance slows an electrical current down. Explained by Lenz's Law, this phenomenon occurs only in AC circuits. (Java tutorial)

John Bardeen was one of a handful of individuals awarded the Nobel Prize twice and the first scientist to win dual awards in physics. Both times, he shared the prize with others. The first time his co-recipients were Walter Brattain and...

A collection of video lectures from a course that explores the application of electrical engineering topics. Webpage includes twenty-eight lectures from a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Lectures vary in length and...

This article discusses the properties of electromagnetic radiation and photons.

Instructional module focusing on light and electromagnetism. Discussion includes historical discoveries that led to the understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum. Site also includes an interactive practice quiz and links relating to...

Generate electricity with a bar magnet! Discover the physics behind the phenomena by exploring magnets and how you can use them to make a bulb light. Java required.

Investigate with a bar magnet and coils to learn about Faraday's law. You can also play with electromagnets, generators, and transformers!

This article surveys inductance and its different forms. It discusses numerous topics associated with inductance such as Faraday's Law, self and mutual inductance, inductors, and magnetic field lines.

In this activity, the students will complete the grand challenge and design an electromagnet to separate steel from aluminum for the recycler. In order to do this, students compare the induced magnetic field of an electric current with...

There is a secret mysterious force in your home right this very moment! Try these activities to first identify that force and then extend your knowledge of the force by investigating the other activities provided.

Einstein Light highlights the Theory of Special Relativity and related topics. Learn how Galileo, Maxwell, and Einstein contributed to our knowledge of relativity, electricity, magnetism, and time by watching fun, interactive modules.

No fancy movement in this tutorial, but these rules come in very handy when trying to understand some of what's going on in our other tutorials.

On line course on Electricity and Magnetism for graduate credit or professional development, that emphasizes hands on activities you can use in your classroom.