Andre Marie Ampere

Andre-Marie Ampere was a French Physicist, Mathematician, Chemist and

Philosopher, best known for his work in Electrodynamics. The unit of
electric current, Ampere, bears his name. He was born on the 20th of
January,1775 at Poleymieux in France, sixteen miles away from the city of
Lyon. Andre-Marie's father was a successful businessman in Lyon. In 1782,
he decided to spend more time on Amperes education by taking some time
off from his business. It was during this time that his father inspired in him
a thirst for knowledge. He mentions in his autobiographical writings, that
his father, instead of forcing him to stick to a specific curriculum knew
how to inspire in him a desire to know." At an early age Ampere completed
reading all the articles in theLEncyclopedie in alphabetical order, and there
are reports that even much later in life he was capable of recalling them
from memory successfully. Ampere's interest in Mathematics grew from a
very tender age. At thirteen, he was writing a treatise on conic sections,
and had already submitted a paper to theAcademie de Lyon. However, due
to his lack of exposure to other contemporary mathematicians and
advancements made in research, Amperes work was rejected. This
inspired him to study Calculus and further his knowledge in the field of
mathematics.
Amperes Contributions to Mathematics
Starting in 1797 till 1802, Ampere tutored in mathematics. In 1802, Ampere was appointed professor of Physics
and Chemistry at the Bourge Ecole Centrale. Even though he spent most of his time instructing Physics and
Chemistry, his research interests lay in the field of Mathematics. In 1803, the Paris Academy published work
from his preliminary research efforts the Mathematical Theory of Games. There were several editions of this
work, each with a set of corrections. His next publication dealt with the Calculus of Variations, and was
published in the same year. By then Ampere had got a fairly good reputation for his contributions to the field of
Mathematics and in 1804, he was appointed a repetiteur, in analysis at the Ecole Polytechnique. Considering his
lack of formal education, this indeed a great achievement. He was appointed Professor at the Ecole
Polytechnique in 1809. In 1826 he was appointed chair at the Universite de France, a post he retained till his
death in 1828. Meanwhile his achievements had also been noticed by Napoleon, who appointed him InspectorGeneral of the newly created university system. During his stay at the Ecole Polytechnique he worked in close
contact with Augustin-Louis Cauchy. Ampere shared the load of teaching the topics of mechanics and analysis
with him. Ampere's conceptual approach to dealing with these topics was in sharp comparison to Cauchys
rather rigorous approach and made him more popular with the students. While at Paris, Ampere worked in
developing a classification of partial differential equations, that he presented to the Instut des Sciences in 1814.
The success of this work was crucial in his election over Cauchy, in 1814 to the Instut des Sciences.
Amperes Contributions to Physics and Chemistry
While making giant strides in the field of Mathematics, Ampere also made important contributions to the field
of Chemistry. After getting admitted to the Instut in 1814, Ampere developed a classification of the elements in
1816. He was also involved in the development of the theory of light. He subscribed to the wave theory of light

and was against the corpuscular theory. The work done by Ampere in the field of Electromagnetism was his
greatest contribution. In September 1820 a Danish scientist named Hans Christian Orsted produced some
experimental results in the field of magnetism. Ampere reacted quickly to the discovery and by the end of
September he had discovered electrodynamical forces between linear current conductors. He also realized that
the deflection of a compass needle caused by an electric current flowing through it could be used to measure the
magnitude of the current. This concept led to the development of the galvanometer. He presented his discoveries
to the Academy in November 1820, and published his work in the Annales de Chimie et de Physique. In 1826,
Amperes seminal work in the field of electromagnetism culminated in the publication, of the Memoir on the
Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena, Uniquely Deduced from Experience. It included a
rigorous mathematical derivation of the electrodynamic force law and was substantiated by four experiments.
Amperes Personal Life
Amperes personal life was rather tragic. The French Revolution which started in 1789, greatly influenced his
teenage years. In 1793, when the Republican army captured Lyons, Ampere's father a wealthy city official was
sent to the guillotine. This had a devastating effect on Ampere, and he gave up his studies for eighteen months
to cope with the trauma. Things improved when he met Julie and was engaged to marry her in 1797. However,
soon after, their marriage Julie died in 1803. He remarried in 1806, but the consequences were barely pleasant,
resulting in a separation in less than a year. Ampere never recovered completely from these personal tragedies
and the epitaph he choose for his gravestone says Tandem Felix ('Happy at last')