André­Marie Ampére

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André­Marie Ampére

André­Marie Ampére (b. Lyons, France, 22nd Jan. 1775, d. Marseilles, France, 10th June 1836) was a

mathematician, a chemist, a physicist and a philosopher. The SI unit of electric current was named after him

as the Ampere. His father, Jean­Jacques, was a merchant. Jean­Jacques exposed his son to a library and let

him educate himself according to his own tastes. André­Marie soon discovered and perfected his

mathematical talents. He even learned Latin in order to read the works by Euler and Bernoulli. The great

encyclopédie had the most important influence on him. He was also thoroughly instructed in Catholic faith.

During the French Revolution, his father was guillotined. André­Marie was unable to bear this shock. For a

year, he retreated, not talking to anyone. During this time, he met Julie Carron who was somewhat older than

he was. Ampére pursued Julie until she consented to marry him. They were wed on the 7th of August 1799

and their son, Jean­Jacques, was born.the following year. Ampére became the professor of physics and

chemistry at the École­Centrale of Bourgen­Bresse, where he worked on probability theory. Julie died on the

13th of July 1803 of an illness. Ampére became inconsolable again. He married Jeanne Potot in 1806. After

the birth of their daughter, Albine, they got a divorce.

Between 1820 and 1825, after a series of experiments, Ampére provided factual evidence for his contention

that magnetism was electricity in motion, summarized in his famous 9 points. They describe the law of action

of current carrying wires, and model magnets as having circulating currents in them. Ampére was able to

unify the fields of electricity and magnetism on a basic numeric level. Fresnel helped Ampére improve his

theory by suggesting that there may be currents of electricity around each molecule. Ampére assumed that

the 'electrodynamic molecule' was a molecule of iron that decomposed the aether, that pervaded both space

and matter into the two 'electric fluids.' Ampere's theory of the electrodynamic molecule was not accepted by

everyone. His primary opponent was Michael Faraday, who could not follow the mathematics and did not

accept his theory. Ampére's son fell in love with Mrs. Jeanne Recamier, an entertainer and a great beauty of

the empire. His daughter Albine, married an army officer who turned out to be a drunkard. Following this, after

1827, Ampére's scientific activity declined and he died alone, while on a tour in Marseilles.