Electricity-Physics

ELECTRICITY

600 B.C.

* The idea about electricity began

Amber

* A material that could attract small bits of materials after being rubbed with wool.

William Gilbert of England

* Found out that some other materials also behaved like amber when rubbed against each other

* He called these substances electric, from the Greek word electron meaning amber.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF FOREIGN SCIENTISTS TO ELECTRICITY

1. Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)

* Aptly called “the first civilized American”

* One of the best known and most admired men in the world during the latter half of the 18th century

* Remained a prominent and symbolic figure in the American gallery of heroes

* Invented a new kind of heating unit known as the Franklin stove in 1740

* His most famous scientific experiment was in the field of electricity

* He demonstrated that lightning was a form of electricity

* Used a kite to prove that lightning is really a stream of electrified air (which is known today as plasma)

2. Charles Augustin De Coulomb (1736 – 1806)

* Born in Angoulême, France on June 14, 1736

* A French physicist and a pioneer in electrical theory

* He invented the torsion balance for measuring the force of magnetic and electrical attraction

* With the said invention, he was able to prove experimentally that the electric force was proportional to the product of the two charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance

* His principle known as Coulomb’s law showed the interaction between electric charges. In symbol,

F= kQ1Q2r2

Where F = electric force in newton

k = has a constant value of 9×109N-m2C2

Q1 and Q2 = electrical charges in coulomb

r = distance in meters

* Coulomb, an electrical unit was named after him

3. Alessandro Volta (1745 – 1827)

* A physics professor and a lifelong experimenter

* Made many contributions to science such as inventing the electrophorus, a device that produced static charges...