ANDRE AMPERE (1775 –1836)

ANDRE AMPERE ( – ) Andre Ampere ( – ) Andre Marie Ampere was a French physicist, mathematician and chemist who founded the science of electrodynamics. Ampere was a child prodigy who mastered advanced mathematics by the age of . Ampere grasped the significance of Oersted’s discovery. He carried out a large series of experiments to explore the relationship between current electricity and magnetism. These investigations culminated in with the publication of the ‘Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Pheno- mena Deduced Solely from Experiments’. He hypo- thesised that all magnetic phenomena are due to circulating electric currents. Ampere was humble and absent- minded. He once forgot an invitation to dine with the Emperor Napoleon. He died of pneumonia at the age of . His gravestone bears the epitaph: Tandem Felix (Happy at last).