Hans Christian Ørsted



Hans Christian Ørsted (14 August 1777 – 9 March 1851) was a Danish physicist and chemist who is best known for discovering that electric currents can create magnetic fields. He shaped post-Kantian philosophy and advances in science throughout the late nineteenth century. He was also the first modern thinker to explicitly describe and name the thought experiment.

Quotes

 * The agreement of this law with nature will be better seen by the repetition of experiments than by a long explanation.
 * Relating his discovery of the magnetic effect of an electric current, in "Experiments on the Effect of a Current of Electricity on the Magnetic Needle", Annals of Philosophy 1820, vol. 16, pp. 273-277.