Georg Ohm is a German physicist who is best remembered for his theory of electricity known as Ohm’s Law. He was born in Erlangen, Germany in 1787 to Johann Wolfgang Ohm and Maria Elizabeth Beck.
Georg Ohm had humble roots. He had two siblings, a younger brother, Martin and sister Elizabeth Barbara.
Georg Ohm and his brother Martin, who later became a famous mathematician, were taught by their father and brought to a high standard in the study of physics, mathematics, chemistry, and philosophy.
Early life and studies
At age eleven, Ohm enrolled himself in Erlangen Gymnasium and continued his studies there until he was fifteen.
Georg Ohm studied mathematics and physics at the University of Erlangen in 1805. His father sent him to Switzerland in 1806. While studying, he had to do some teaching jobs in Gottstadt bei Nydau for economic reasons. While teaching mathematics in several schools, he wrote an elementary geometry book. He left his teaching post in 1809 and became a private tutor in Neuchâtel. During his free time, Ohm continued his private studies in mathematics. He returned to University of Erlangen in March 1811 and received his PhD on October 25, 1811.
Due to the Napoleonic wars, Ohm left his native Bavaria for Cologne in 1817 where he read the works of Euler, Laplace and Lacroix.
Ohm learned of the discovery of electromagnetism in 1820 and began his experimental work in a school physics laboratory. He started working passionately on the behavior or electrical circuits and the conductivity of metals. He quit teaching in Cologne and settled in his brother’s house in Berlin. In 1826, Ohm gave a mathematical description of conduction in two important papers where he proposed laws explaining the results of galvanic electricity.
Ohm’s logical argument of mathematical proofs made him the object of ridicule. He did not receive any credit for his findings until he was made director of the Polytechnic School of Nüremberg in 1833. After extensive research, he formulated and described the mathematical relationship between current, voltage, and resistance in an electric circuit and wrote his findings in his book “Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet.” His findings were important because they represent the analysis of the electrical circuit .
Ohm’s work received little enthusiasm, and was criticized and rejected because of its authenticity and experimental approach. His work was ultimately recognized by German scholars months after he was honored with a Copley Medal for his extraordinary efforts by the Royal Society of London. In 1842, Georg Ohm was made a foreign member of the Royal Society and in 1845, a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Interesting facts about his life
Electricity was not the only topic that ended in controversy. Georg Ohm started the fundamental principles of physiological acoustics in 1843, a branch of science that analyzes the biological origin of sounds from the environment through the middle ear or how we hear combination tones.
He worked in Munich as a Curator at the Bavarian Academy’s physical cabinet in 1849 and became a physics professor at the University of Munich. In 1852, Ohm was appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Munich.
The fact that Georg Ohm’s contribution took a long time to gain acknowledgement was the result of different factors. Other than his introverted character and his mathematical approach, he had personal disputes with men in power like Johannes Schultz, who was an influential figure in Berlin Ministry of Education, and physics Professor Georg Friedrich Pohl.
Georg Ohm was 65 years old when he died on July 6, 1854. Ohm’s law is still the most widely used and appreciated of all the rules related to the behavior of electrical circuits.
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