PHYSICIST NAME: George Ohm
STUDENT NAME: Angela Mari Peralta
Georg Simon Ohm came from a Protestant family. His father, Johann Wolfgang Ohm, was a locksmith while his mother, Maria Elizabeth Beck, was the daughter of a tailor. Although his parents had not been formally educated, Ohm's father was a rather remarkable man who had educated himself to a high level and was able to give his sons an excellent education through his own teachings. Had Ohm's brothers and sisters all survived he would have been one of a large family but, as was common in those times, several of the children died in their childhood. Of the seven children born to Johann and Maria Ohm only three survived, Georg Simon, his brother Martin who went on to become a well-known mathematician, and his sister Elizabeth Barbara.
When they were children, Georg Simon and Martin were taught by their father who brought them to a high standard in mathematics, physics, chemistry and philosophy. This was in stark contrast to their school education. Georg Simon entered Erlangen Gymnasium at the age of eleven but there he received little in the way of scientific training. In fact this formal part of his schooling was uninspired stressing learning by rote and interpreting texts. This contrasted strongly with the inspired instruction that both Georg Simon and Martin received from their father who brought them to a level in mathematics which led the professor at the University of Erlangen, Karl Christian von Langsdorf, to compare them to the Bernoulli family. It is worth stressing again the remarkable achievement of Johann Wolfgang Ohm, an entirely self-taught man, to have been able to give his sons such a fine mathematical and scientific education.
In 1805 Ohm entered the University of Erlangen but he became rather carried away with student life. Rather than concentrate on his studies he spent much time dancing, ice skating and playing billiards. Ohm's father, angry that his son was wasting the educational opportunity that he himself had never been fortunate enough to experience, demanded that Ohm leave the university after three semesters. Ohm went (or more accurately, was sent) to Switzerland where, in September 1806, he took up a post as a mathematics teacher in a school in Gottstadt bei Nydau.
Karl Christian von Langsdorf left the University of Erlangen in early 1809 to take up a post in the University of Heidelberg and Ohm would have liked to have gone with him to Heidelberg to restart his mathematical studies. Langsdorf, however, advised Ohm to continue with his studies of mathematics on his own, advising Ohm to read the works of Euler, Laplace and Lacroix. Rather reluctantly Ohm took his advice but he left his teaching post in Gottstadt bei Nydau in March 1809 to become a private tutor in Neuchâtel. For two years he carried out his duties as a tutor while he followed Langsdorf's advice and continued his private study of mathematics. Then in April 1811 he returned to the University of Erlangen.
His private studies had stood him in good stead for he received a doctorate from Erlangen on 25 October 1811 and immediately joined the staff as a mathematics lecturer. After three semesters Ohm gave up his university post. He could not see how he could attain a better status at Erlangen as prospects there were poor while he essentially lived in poverty in the lecturing post. The Bavarian government offered him a post as a teacher of mathematics and physics at a poor quality school in Bamberg and he took up the post there in January 1813.
This was not the successful career envisaged by Ohm and he decided that he would have to show that he was worth much more than a teacher in a poor school. He worked on writing an elementary book on the teaching of geometry while remaining desperately unhappy in his job. After Ohm had endured the school for three years it was closed down in February 1816. The Bavarian government then sent him to an overcrowded school in Bamberg to help out with the mathematics teaching.
On 11 September 1817 Ohm received an offer of the post of teacher of mathematics and physics at the Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne. This was a better school than any that Ohm had taught in previously and it had a well equipped physics laboratory. As he had done for so much of his life, Ohm continued his private studies reading the texts of the leading French mathematicians Lagrange, Legendre, Laplace, Biot and Poisson. He moved on to reading the works of Fourier and Fresneland he began his own experimental work in the school physics laboratory after he had learnt of Oersted's discovery of electromagnetism in 1820. At first his experiments were conducted for his own educational benefit as were the private studies he made of the works of the leading mathematicians.
In January 1781, before Georg Ohm's work, Henry Cavendish experimented with Leyden jars and glass tubes of varying diameter and length filled with salt solution. He measured the current by noting how strong a shock he felt as he completed the circuit with his body. Cavendish wrote that the "velocity" (current) varied directly as the "degree of electrification" (voltage). He did not communicate his results to other scientists at the time, and his results were unknown until Maxwell published them in 1879.
Ohm did his work on resistance in the years 1825 and 1826, and published his results in 1827 as the book Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet (The galvanic Circuit investigated mathematically). He drew considerable inspiration from Fourier's work on heat conduction in the theoretical explanation of his work. For experiments, he initially used voltaic piles, but later used a thermocouple as this provided a more stable voltage source in terms of internal resistance and constant potential difference. He used a galvanometer to measure current, and knew that the voltage between the thermocouple terminals was proportional to the junction temperature. He then added test wires of varying length, diameter, and material to complete the circuit. He found that his data could be modeled through the equation
where x was the reading from the galvanometer, l was the length of the test conductor, a depended only on the thermocouple junction temperature, and b was a constant of the entire setup. From this, Ohm determined his law of proportionality and published his results.
Ohm's law was probably the most important of the early quantitative descriptions of the physics of electricity. We consider it almost obvious today. When Ohm first published his work, this was not the case; critics reacted to his treatment of the subject with hostility. They called his work a "web of naked fancies"] and the German Minister of Education proclaimed that "a professor who preached such heresies was unworthy to teach science."[ The prevailing scientific philosophy in Germany at the time, led by Hegel, asserted that experiments need not be performed to develop an understanding of nature because nature is so well ordered, and that scientific truths may be deduced through reasoning alone. Also, Ohm's brother Martin, a mathematician, was battling the German educational system. These factors hindered the acceptance of Ohm's work, and his work did not become widely accepted until the 1840s. Fortunately, Ohm received recognition for his contributions to science well before he died.
In the 1850s, Ohm's law was known as such, and was widely considered proved, and alternatives such as "Barlow's law" discredited, in terms of real applications to telegraph system design, as discussed by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1855.
While the old term for electrical conductance, the mho (the inverse of the resistance unit ohm), is still used, a new name, the siemens, was adopted in 1971, honoring Ernst Werner von Siemens. The siemens is preferred in formal papers.
In the 1920s, it was discovered that the current through an ideal resistor actually has statistical fluctuations, which depend on temperature, even when voltage and resistance are exactly constant; this fluctuation, now known as Johnson–Nyquist noise, is due to the discrete nature of charge. This thermal effect implies that measurements of current and voltage that are taken over sufficiently short periods of time will yield ratios of V/I that fluctuate from the value of R implied by the time average or ensemble average of the measured current; Ohm's law remains correct for the average current, in the case of ordinary resistive materials.
Ohm's work long preceded Maxwell's equations and any understanding of frequency-dependent effects in AC circuits. Modern developments in electromagnetic theory and circuit theory do not contradict Ohm's law when they are evaluated within the appropriate limits.
Ohm's Law defines the relationships between (P) power, (E) voltage, (I) current, and (R) resistance. One ohm is the resistance value through which one volt will maintain a current of one ampere.
( I ) Current is what flows on a wire or conductor like water flowing down a river. Current flows from negative to positive on the surface of a conductor. Current is measured in (A) amperes or amps.
( E ) Voltage is the difference in electrical potential between two points in a circuit. It's the push or pressure behind current flow through a circuit, and is measured in (V) volts.
( R ) Resistance determines how much current will flow through a component. Resistors are used to control voltage and current levels. A very high resistance allows a small amount of current to flow. A very low resistance allows a large amount of current to flow. Resistance is measured in ohms.
( P ) Power is the amount of current times the voltage level at a given point measured in wattage or watts.
To make a current flow through a resistance there must be a voltage across that resistance.
Ohm's Law shows the relationship between the voltage (V), current (I) and resistance (R). It can be written in three ways:
V = I × R or I = V
or R = V
where: V = voltage in volts (V)
I = current in amps (A)
R = resistance in ohms ( ) or: V = voltage in volts (V)
I = current in milliamps (mA)
R = resistance in kilohms (k )
For most electronic circuits the amp is too large and the ohm is too small, so we often measure current in milliamps (mA) and resistance in kilohms (k ). 1 mA = 0.001 A and 1 k = 1000 .
The Ohm's Law equations work if you use V, A and , or if you use V, mA and k . You must not mix these sets of units in the equations so you may need to convert between mA and A or k and .
The VIR triangle
You can use the VIR triangle to help you remember the three versions of Ohm's Law.
Write down V, I and R in a triangle like the one in the yellow box on the right.
• To calculate voltage, V: put your finger over V,
this leaves you with I R, so the equation is V = I × R
• To calculate current, I: put your finger over I,
this leaves you with V over R, so the equation is I = V/R
• To calculate resistance, R: put your finger over R,
this leaves you with V over I, so the equation is R = V/I
Ohm's Law Calculations
Use this method to guide you through calculations:
1. Write down the Values, converting units if necessary.
2. Select the Equation you need (use the VIR triangle).
3. Put the Numbers into the equation and calculate the answer.
It should be Very Easy Now!
• 3 V is applied across a 6 resistor, what is the current?
o Values: V = 3 V, I = ?, R = 6
o Equation: I = V/R
o Numbers: Current, I = 3/6 = 0.5 A
A lamp connected to a 6 V battery passes a current of 60 mA, what is the lamp's resistance?
o Values: V = 6 V, I = 60 mA, R = ?
o Equation: R = V/I
o Numbers: Resistance, R = 6/60 = 0.1 k = 100
(using mA for current means the calculation gives the resistance in k )
A 1.2 k resistor passes a current of 0.2 A, what is the voltage across it?
o Values: V = ?, I = 0.2 A, R = 1.2 k = 1200
(1.2 k is converted to 1200 because A and k must not be used together)
o Equation: V = I × R
o Numbers: V = 0.2 × 1200 = 240
OBJECT OF INTEREST
Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference or voltage across the two points, and inversely proportional to the resistance between them provided the temperature remains constant