Georg Ohm

German physicist who formulated Ohm's Law.

He worked on electric currents and acoustics. The unit of electrical resistance (Ohm) was named after him.
 
Georg Simon Ohm (16 March 1787 (89?) – 6 July 1854) was a German physicist born in Erlangen, Brandenburg-Bayreuth. He began his research as a high school teacher, used an electrochemical cell invented by Italian Count Alessandro Volta that time. Ohm taught in Cologne, Nuremberg, and finally in Munich.

A highly methodical experimenter, Ohm also availed his own created equipment to determine that there is a direct proportion between the potential difference (voltage) applied across a conductor and the resultant electric current.  This relationship is known as Ohm's law, an empirical law (found by experiment), which he formulated in 1827.

Ohm was appointed professor at Munich to honour his discovery of the law (Ohm's Law), that relates to electrical current intensity, electromotive force, and circuit resistance.  He also taught in Cologne, Berlin, and Nuremberg.

What is Ohm's Law?

According to Oxford Dictionary, Ohm's Law is:  The ratio of the potential difference between the ends of a conductor to the current flowing through it is constant. This constant is the resistance of the conductor.  Ohm's Law  in mathematical equation states that if:

V ---> is voltage in volts across a conductor

I --->is the current in amps through the conductor

R ---> is the resistance of the conductor in ohms

then   V = IR.

Or, it takes 1 volt (voltage)  to push 1 amp (current) through a resistance of 1 ohm (conductor resistance).  Ohm's name is acknowledged in the unit of electrical resistance in relation to voltage and current.





Resources:

• Ellyard, David.  Who Discovered What When.  Sydney:  New Holland Publishers, 2005.

• Oxford Dictionary of Physics, 5th Edition.  OUP,  2005.

Image Credit:

Georg Ohm. en.wikipedia.org, public domain.  Accessed 16 March 2016.


Note: This post was initially published March 16, 2012, updated to celebrate his birthday today, March 16, 2016.

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