Michael Faraday
The Amateur:
A guy who worked in a London book shop, with virtually no formal education.
The Accomplishment:
Revolutionized our understanding of electricity, and a whole lot more.
If you are using anything powered by electricity, if you know anything about magnetism, if you have ever used a Bunsen burner or if you are a big fan of benzene and the clathrate hydrate of chlorine (and who isn't?), then you owe some respect to Mr. Faraday. Michael Faraday was a genuine experimental genius and is considered one of the most influential scientists of all time. Oh, and he never had any formal education.
Faraday was born into a poor family in industrial London, so he never had any money to pay for a proper school. Instead, at age 14 he took an apprenticeship at the local book-binder for seven years. While he was there, he started to read some of the books that he was binding -- sort of like working in a chocolate factory and eating all the chocolate, only you don't get fired for it.
Now, having read up on a bunch of science stuff and finding himself fascinated with it, he asked London's best scientist, Humphrey Davy, for an assistant job. Humphrey declined. To be honest, Faraday was a guy with absolutely no scientific experience or education who had just asked the best chemist in the business for a job.
He did get a job in the next year though, and then shit went down. In short time, Faraday invented the electric motor, the electric generator, the Bunsen burner, electrolysis and electroplating. He discovered electro-magnetic induction, he discovered benzene, he figured out the shape of magnetic fields, discovered metallic nano-particles (thought to be the birth of nano-science) and something complicated about chlorine. Basically, he was a science machine.
Today, his legacy lives on as one of the best scientists the world has ever seen, despite having never been taught science in his life. Besides, no one could really teach him much science because he discovered most of it. Davy, the world famous chemist who turned down his initial job application, was once asked, "What was your greatest discovery?" He replied, "Michael Faraday."
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Born 22 September 1791
Newington Butts, England
Died 25 August 1867 (aged 75)
Hampton Court, Middlesex, England
Residence United Kingdom
Nationality British
Fields Physics, Chemistry
Institutions Royal Institution
Known for Faraday's law of induction
Electrochemistry
Faraday effect
Faraday cage
Faraday constant
Faraday cup
Faraday's laws of electrolysis
Faraday paradox
Faraday rotator
Faraday-efficiency effect
Faraday wave
Faraday wheel
Lines of force
Influences Humphry Davy
William Thomas Brande
Notable awards Royal Medal (1835 & 1846)
Copley Medal (1832 & 1838)
Rumford Medal (1846)
Signature
Michael Faraday, FRS (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was a British scientist, chemist, physicist and philosopher who greatly contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include that of the Magnetic Field, Electromagnetic Induction, Diamagnetism and Electrolysis.
Although Faraday received little formal education and knew little of higher mathematics such as calculus, he was one of the most influential scientists in history;[1] historians[2] of science refer to him as having been the best experimentalist in the history of science.[3] It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a DC electric current that Faraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.[4][5] He similarly discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became viable for use in technology.
As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner and the system of oxidation numbers, and popularised terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion. Faraday ultimately became the first and foremost Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a lifetime position.
Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language; his mathematical abilities, however, did not extend as far as trigonometry or any but the simplest algebra. Maxwell took the work of Faraday and others, and summarized it in a set of equations that is accepted as the basis of all modern theories about electromagnetic phenomena. On Faraday's uses of the lines of force, Maxwell wrote that they show Faraday "to have been in reality a mathematician of a very high order – one from whom the mathematicians of the future may derive valuable and fertile methods."[6]
It is said that Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall, alongside the picture of Isaac Newton and the photograph of James Clerk Maxwell.[7]
The Amateur:
A guy who worked in a London book shop, with virtually no formal education.
The Accomplishment:
Revolutionized our understanding of electricity, and a whole lot more.
If you are using anything powered by electricity, if you know anything about magnetism, if you have ever used a Bunsen burner or if you are a big fan of benzene and the clathrate hydrate of chlorine (and who isn't?), then you owe some respect to Mr. Faraday. Michael Faraday was a genuine experimental genius and is considered one of the most influential scientists of all time. Oh, and he never had any formal education.
Faraday was born into a poor family in industrial London, so he never had any money to pay for a proper school. Instead, at age 14 he took an apprenticeship at the local book-binder for seven years. While he was there, he started to read some of the books that he was binding -- sort of like working in a chocolate factory and eating all the chocolate, only you don't get fired for it.
Now, having read up on a bunch of science stuff and finding himself fascinated with it, he asked London's best scientist, Humphrey Davy, for an assistant job. Humphrey declined. To be honest, Faraday was a guy with absolutely no scientific experience or education who had just asked the best chemist in the business for a job.
He did get a job in the next year though, and then shit went down. In short time, Faraday invented the electric motor, the electric generator, the Bunsen burner, electrolysis and electroplating. He discovered electro-magnetic induction, he discovered benzene, he figured out the shape of magnetic fields, discovered metallic nano-particles (thought to be the birth of nano-science) and something complicated about chlorine. Basically, he was a science machine.
Today, his legacy lives on as one of the best scientists the world has ever seen, despite having never been taught science in his life. Besides, no one could really teach him much science because he discovered most of it. Davy, the world famous chemist who turned down his initial job application, was once asked, "What was your greatest discovery?" He replied, "Michael Faraday."
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Born 22 September 1791
Newington Butts, England
Died 25 August 1867 (aged 75)
Hampton Court, Middlesex, England
Residence United Kingdom
Nationality British
Fields Physics, Chemistry
Institutions Royal Institution
Known for Faraday's law of induction
Electrochemistry
Faraday effect
Faraday cage
Faraday constant
Faraday cup
Faraday's laws of electrolysis
Faraday paradox
Faraday rotator
Faraday-efficiency effect
Faraday wave
Faraday wheel
Lines of force
Influences Humphry Davy
William Thomas Brande
Notable awards Royal Medal (1835 & 1846)
Copley Medal (1832 & 1838)
Rumford Medal (1846)
Signature
Michael Faraday, FRS (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was a British scientist, chemist, physicist and philosopher who greatly contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include that of the Magnetic Field, Electromagnetic Induction, Diamagnetism and Electrolysis.
Although Faraday received little formal education and knew little of higher mathematics such as calculus, he was one of the most influential scientists in history;[1] historians[2] of science refer to him as having been the best experimentalist in the history of science.[3] It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a DC electric current that Faraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.[4][5] He similarly discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became viable for use in technology.
As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner and the system of oxidation numbers, and popularised terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion. Faraday ultimately became the first and foremost Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a lifetime position.
Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language; his mathematical abilities, however, did not extend as far as trigonometry or any but the simplest algebra. Maxwell took the work of Faraday and others, and summarized it in a set of equations that is accepted as the basis of all modern theories about electromagnetic phenomena. On Faraday's uses of the lines of force, Maxwell wrote that they show Faraday "to have been in reality a mathematician of a very high order – one from whom the mathematicians of the future may derive valuable and fertile methods."[6]
It is said that Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall, alongside the picture of Isaac Newton and the photograph of James Clerk Maxwell.[7]
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