Hans Christian Ørsted
Hans Christian Ørsted [ œrsdɛð ] ( born August 14, 1777 Rudkøbing, † March 9, 1851 in Copenhagen) was a Danish physicist and chemist. 1820 Ørsted discovered the magnetic effect of electric current and is regarded as the founders of the theory of electricity and electronics. Ørsted was in 1829 instrumental in the founding of the Polytechnic educational institution ( the Danish Polytekniske Læreanstalt ) in Copenhagen, the predecessor of today's University of Technology Denmark. Since opening, he was until his death president of the school. He is regarded as one of the leading figures of the Golden Age in Denmark.
Life
Ørsted was born the son of a pharmacist Søren Christian Ørsted. Since there was no general education until 1814, Ørsted and his younger brother Anders Sandoe Oersted were mainly taught by a German wigmaker and his wife, where they learned, inter alia, German, mathematics and the Lutheran catechisms. By working in his father's pharmacy in which he started helping out with twelve years, Ørsted's interest in science was piqued. He received his further education primarily self taught through self-study and went to Copenhagen in 1793 to his entrance exam to the University of Copenhagen store, where he then studied natural sciences and pharmacy. In 1799 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on Kant's philosophy of nature with the title: About the architectonic of natural metaphysics.
From 1801 to 1804 he made an extensive study tour of Europe. Among other things, he spent several months in France and Germany, where he met the physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter, for example. Ritter was the inventor of the first battery, the charge Ritter'schen column dealt with galvanism and is considered a co-founder of electrochemistry. With Knight Ørsted shared a long friendship and his natural philosophical ideas and views submitted with the foundation for later research Ørsteds electromagnetism. In 1806 he became professor of chemistry and physics at the University of Copenhagen. Here he officiated 1825/26 and 1840/41 as rector.
In 1809 he became a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and in 1821 to the of-town member. Prussia also praised his scientific findings and awarded him in 1842 the same year by Frederick William IV donated Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.
In January 1812 he was admitted to the Copenhagen Friedrich Masonic Lodge to winning and hope on his wedding day in 1814, where he married Inger Birgitte Ballum, the Copenhagen lodges appointed him an honorary member. Ørsted had with his wife, three sons and four daughters. The writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) maintained a long-standing friendship with Ørsted and was influenced by his natural philosophical views, which is particularly reflected in the view of John L. Greenway in his tale The bell. As a literary connoisseur and convinced of Andersen's talent, Ørsted in 1835 was with the driving force for the publication of his tales ( Eventyr, continuing old for Børn 1835-1848, dt " fairy tale for children told ").
On the initiative of the Polytechnic Ørsted educational institution ( the Danish Polytekniske Læreanstalt; predecessor of Technical University of Denmark ) was founded in 1829 in Copenhagen, he was its first rector since its opening until his death in 1851. When he died at the age of 73 years in Copenhagen on March 9, 1851, he was recognized physicist, chemist and astronomer, and is now considered one of the leading figures of the Golden Age in Denmark. His tomb is located on the assistance cemetery in Copenhagen Nørrebro.
Work
Chemistry
Isolated for the first time in 1819 Ørsted piperidine from black pepper, and 1825 he exhibited for the first time aluminum ago by reacting aluminum chloride ( AlCl3 ) with potassium amalgam.
Physics
1820 Ørsted observed during a lecture, the deflection of a compass needle by a current-carrying wire, and thus discovered the magnetic effect of electric current. He then undertook further experiments and constructed in the same year the piezometers. Ørsted was not the first who discovered a connection between electricity and magnetism, because even 18 years after his observations of the Italian Gian Domenico Romagnosi were made. These were but at that time no attention, and fell back into oblivion. The already prone to holistic ideas Ørsted immediately recognized the importance of the link between the two phenomena and solved with the publication of his findings, the development of the theory of electricity and electrical engineering from. After the Ørsted now obsolete cgs unit of magnetic field strength is named (abbreviated with the unit symbol Oe).
He also conducted research on the properties of liquids and gases, where his main focus was on their compressibility.
Philosophy
Ørsted was the first the term thought experiment as a relation between mathematical and physical knowledge in Kant. The coinage of the term but Ernst Mach attributed as Ørsteds Kantian perspective remained almost without conceptual historical influence.
Honors
The first Danish satellite Ørsted was launched in 1999, for high-precision measurement of the Earth's magnetic field, and the lunar crater Oersted were named in his honor after him. Ørsted was also named after the first designed as a cable-laying ship and successfully used, the built at Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen 1872 HC Ørsted Det Store Nordiske telegraph Selskab.