National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Leyden Jar
These devices, though quite humble, represented a tremendous breakthrough in the history of electricity; they were the first capacitors, and as such were able to store electric charge. (Java tutorial)
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Lodestone 600 Bc
The history of electricity and magnetism starts with this special mineral possessing amazing, and still mysterious, properties.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Peter Debye
Peter Debye carried out pioneering studies of molecular dipole moments, formulated theories of magnetic cooling and of electrolytic dissociation, and developed an X-ray diffraction technique for use with powdered, rather than...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Voltaic Pile 1800
For thousands of years, electricity was an ephemeral phenomenon- there one second and gone the next. The voltaic pile changed that forever.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: The Tesla Coil
What's behind the cool purple sparks? Neat science about resonance and transformers. Slideshow: [6:00]
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Andre Marie Ampere
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...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Humphry Davy
Humphry Davy was a pioneer in the field of electrochemistry who used electrolysis to isolate many elements from the compounds in which they occur naturally. Electrolysis is the process by which an electrolyte is altered or decomposed via...
Learn Engineering
Learn Engineering: Understanding Rotating Magnetic Field & Synchronous Speed
Get information about rotating magnetic fields and how electric machines use them for their operation. Discusses synchronous speed and number of poles on an electrical machine. The accompanying article discusses the topics found in the...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Arc Lamp
Invented decades before it could be used, the first type of electric light was so brilliant it was used for lighthouses and street lamps.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Electrocardiograph 1903
If TV medical dramas have taught us anything, it's how to recognize the heart's characteristic peaks and valleys crawling across monitors in emergency rooms. These images represent the electrical activity of the beating heart as recorded...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Joseph Henry
Joseph Henry was an American scientist who pioneered the construction of strong, practical electromagnets and built one of the first electromagnetic motors. During his experiments with electromagnetism, Henry discovered the property of...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Edward Purcell
Edward Mills Purcell was an American physicist who received half of the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for his development of a new method of ascertaining the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. Known as nuclear magnetic resonance...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Georg Ohm
Georg Simon Ohm had humble roots and struggled financially throughout most of his life, but the German physicist is well known today for his formulation of a law, termed Ohm's law, describing the mathematical relationship between...
University of St. Andrews (UK)
University of St. Andrews: James Clerk Maxwell
Research resources for James Maxwell (1831-1879), who did revolutionary work on electricity and magnetism and on the kinetic theory of gases.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Isidor Isaac Rabi
Isidor Isaac Rabi won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his development of a technique for measuring the magnetic characteristics of atomic nuclei. Rabi's technique was based on the resonance principle first described by Irish...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Guitar Pickup
Keith Richards and Eric Clapton owe their fame and fortune (in part) to electromagnetic induction. (Java tutorial)
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Anders Celsius
Anders Celsius is most familiar as the inventor of the temperature scale that bears his name. The Swedish astronomer, however, also is notable as the first person to make a connection between the radiant atmospheric phenomenon known as...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Magnetic Core Memory 1949
At the dawn of the computer age, magnetic core memory helped make data storage possible, and showed surprising staying power in a field where components are constantly being replaced by new and improved products.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Oersted Satellite, 1999
Named in honor of Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted, Denmark's first satellite has been observing and mapping the magnetic field of the Earth.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Walther Meissner
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...
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Fluorescent Lamp 1934
Compared to incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps last longer, require less energy and produce less heat, advantages resulting from the different way in which they generate light.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Geiger Counter 1908
Counting alpha particles was tedious and time-consuming work, until Hans Geiger came up with a device that did the job automatically.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Leclanche Cell 1866
With only minor changes to its original 1866 design, the Leclanche cell evolved into modern alkaline batteries and the most popular household battery to date.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Iconoscope 1923
American inventor Vladimir Zworykin, the "father of television," conceived two components key to that invention: the iconoscope and the kinescope.