André-Marie Ampere

André-Marie Ampère (French: /ɑ̃dʁe maʁi ɑ̃pɛʁ/; Lyon, January 20, 1775 - Marseille, June 10, 1836) was a French mathematician and physicist. He invented the first electrical telegraph. He formulated in 1827 the theory of electromagnetism. The ampere (French ampère) is named in his honor.

Biography

The house where he grew up in Poleymieux, today Ampère museum.

Statue of André-Marie Ampère, in the square of the same name in Lyon.

Tomb of André Marie Ampère – Cemetery of Montmartre - Paris.

André-Marie Ampère was a precocious child and, before knowing numbers, he was already doing calculations with the help of very small stones and bread crumbs. From an early age he proved to be a genius. Being very young he began to read and at the age of twelve he went to consult the mathematics books of the Lyon library. His father, Jean-Jacques Ampère, was a fervent follower of Rousseau and, following his book Emile, or On Education, gave him an instruction without obligation: Ampère "never went to school" except for teach himself. His father taught him the natural sciences, poetry, and Latin, until he discovered his son's interest and talent for arithmetic. From the age of four he already read Buffon and he only takes his Latin lessons (he learned this language in a few weeks) to be able to understand the works of Leonhard Euler and Daniel Bernoulli.

In 1793 he suffered a deep depression due to the death of his father who, retired as a judge in Lyon, strongly opposed the revolutionary excesses that led to the city's uprising against the National Convention and the siege of Lyon; shortly after being arrested, he was taken to prison and executed on November 25.

In 1796 André-Marie met Julie Carron, whom he married in 1799. Beginning in 1796, Ampère gave private classes in mathematics, chemistry, and languages in Lyon. In 1801, he obtained the position of professor of Physics and Chemistry (in France merged into a single subject) in Bourg-en-Bresse, at the École centrale de Ain (now Lalande High School), leaving his wife and son in Lyon. (named Jean-Jacques, after his father). His wife died in 1803. His little treatise, published in 1802, Considerations sur la théorie mathématique du jeu (Considerations on the Mathematical Theory of Games) attracted the attention of Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, whose recommendation allows him to be appointed teacher of transcendental Mathematics at the Lyon preparatory (today, Ampère School).

In 1804 he was appointed private professor of analysis at the École polytechnique and settled in Paris. In 1806, he married a second time, Jeanne-Françoise Potot, who died in Versailles in 1866 at the age of 88. They had a daughter named Albine.

In 1808 he was appointed inspector general of the University and professor of mathematics at the École Polytechnique, becoming more popular than the great mathematician Cauchy.

Ampère died during an inspection day in the infirmary of the Thiers high school in Marseille in 1836 at the age of 61. He is buried in the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris.

His discoveries

Ampère also worked in mathematics, concentrating on probability theory and the integration of partial differential equations.

In 1820, based on Hans Christian Oersted's experiment, he studied the relationship between magnetism and electricity. He discovered that the direction a compass needle takes depends on the direction of the electric current circulating nearby and deduced from this the so-called "de Ampère" rule: a man is lying on a conducting wire; the current, which by convention goes from more to less, crosses him from head to foot; him while he watches a magnetized needle. The north pole of this needle is then moved to its left. This is also exemplified in the right hand rule: if the first three fingers of the right hand are separated so that the middle finger indicates the direction of the magnetic field and the thumb that of movement, then the index finger will indicate the direction by the right hand. that the current circulates.

Of Ampère's laws, the best known is that of electrodynamics, which describes the forces that two parallel conductors traversed by electric current exert on each other. If the direction of the current is the same in the two conductors, they attract each other; if the current travels in opposite directions, the conductors repel each other. It also describes the relationship between the current strength and the corresponding magnetic field. These works found electrodynamics and considerably influenced the physics of the 19th century.

Ampère interprets the phenomenon of magnetism with the theory of molecular current, according to which innumerable tiny electrically charged particles would be in motion inside the conductor. This theory is rejected by the scientists of the time and is not imposed until sixty years later thanks to the discovery of the electron.

In addition to his work on electrodynamics, he tries to explain certain chemical phenomena with the geometry of molecules and, like Avogadro, hypothesizes that the number of molecules contained in a gas is proportional to its volume.

André-Marie Ampère held the Chair of General and Experimental Physics at the Collège de France, succeeding Louis Lefèvre-Gineau and being replaced by Félix Savart.

Invented the galvanometer and the first electrical telegraph. It was thanks to Ampère that the terms electric current and electric voltage became known.

In addition, in the dispute over the nature of chlorine, he was one of the first to advocate "chlorine: simple body", against the then widespread idea of "chlorine: oxygenated compound of muriatic acid" (now hydrochloric acid)..

A friend of Ballanche and Gilles Coupier, whose philosophy was personally restless, Ampère also published an important classification of the sciences.

Awards

In life, Ampère was recognized by his peers as a first-rate scholar.

• In 1808 Napoléon appointed him inspector general of the newly founded French imperial university.
• In 1814 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris. He was also a corresponding member of various European academies, and related to most of the geniuses of his time.

Tributes

Essai sur la philosophie des sciences

• In his honor, his name was given to the electrical current unit, the amper.
• It is one of 72 scientists whose name is registered at the Eiffel Tower.
• The Ampère Museum, near the city of Lyon, is a history museum of electricity located in the house where André-Marie Ampère lived.
• La Société des Amis d'André-Marie Ampère is an association created in 1930 to preserve the memory of Andrew Ampère.
• Every year, the Academy of Sciences awards the Ampère Award.
• Schools in Arles, Lyon, Oyonnax.
• Primary schools in Paris, Grenoble, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Nantes, Strasbourg, Oullins, Lille, Yzeure, Saint-Étienne du Rouvray, Caluire et Cuire.
• A postal stamp was issued in France in 1936.

In Paris

• There is a street with its last name in Paris.

In Lyon

• One square and the metro station with more connections carry its name.
• The high school of Lyon was renamed in 1888 Ampère School.
• A research laboratory in electrical engineering, CNRS joint research unit.

In Montpellier

• Street called André-Marie Ampère.

Image gallery

• 

  Monument to Ampère, Plaza Ampère in Lyon.

• 

  Medalla André-Marie Ampère de La société française des électriciens. Reverse.

• 

  Medalla André-Marie Ampère de La société française des électriciens. Reverse.

• 

  Ampère Museum in Poleymieux au Mont-d'Or, near Lyon, house where Ampère spent his childhood and adolescence. ]]

Additional bibliography

• Philosophie des deux Ampère, publiée par J. Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire / Ampère, Jean-Jacques (1800-1864) et Ampère, André-Marie (1775-1836). Paris: Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, Jules (1805-1895). Éditeur scientifique, 1866. (Gallica) (in French)
• Valson, Claude-Alphonse (1826-1901), La vie et les travaux d'André-Marie Ampère, Nouv. éd., Lyon: E. Vitte, 1897. (Gallica)
• Poucholle, Antoine, Trois gloires scientifiques françaises, Paris: Edition de la Nouvelle revue, 1934. (Gallica)) (in French)
• Dumoulin Gustave (Madame), Ampère, Paris: Hachette, 1881.(Gallica) (in French)
• André Warusfel, « André Marie Ampère (1775-1836) », in J.-P. Rioux, (dir.) Deux cents ans d'Inspection générale (1802-2002)Ed. Fayard, 2002 (in French)
• Alphonse Valson, « André Marie Ampère (1775-1836) », Em. Vitte (éditeur), Lyon 1885 (ré-édité 1897, 1910 et pour le centenaire de la mort d'Ampère, 1936) (in French)
• Gerard Borvon, Histoire de l'électricité, de l'ambre à l'électron, Vuibert, 2009 ISBN 9782711724925 (in French)
• Michel Dürr, "AMPÈRE André" in Dominique Saint-Pierre (dir.), Dictionnaire historique des académiciens de Lyon 1700-2016, Lyon: Éditions de l'Académie (4, avenue Adolphe Max, 69005 Lyon), 2017, p.35-40 (in French)