Ampère, André-Marie
The Frenchman André-Marie Ampère (1775 - 1836), son to a prosperous businessman, was a mathematics teacher and, later, an experimental physicist working on electricity and magnetism.
He formulated Ampère's law, which states that the mutual force between two current-carrying wires is proportional to their lengths and to the magnitudes of their currents.
He theorized the existence of an electrodynamic molecule, the forerunner of the idea of the electron, that he thought was a kind of compound consisting of the elements electricity and magnetism.
He lent his name to to the ampere, the unit of electrical current.
See also
Last modified:10 January 2026 12.22 p.m.