SACRED LEGACY ARCHIVES™

André-Marie Ampère

1775-01-20 – 1836-06-10

Portrait of the great French physicist André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836) by an unknown artist. Biographer James R. Hoffman (p. 12) writes: "[The portrait was] probably commissioned from an unknown artist near the time of his marriage in August, 1799, when he was 24. In the mid-1930s it was given to the Musée Ampère in the subject's old home in Poleymieux, where it remains."Credit: AnonymousUnknown author

Life & Legacy

André-Marie Ampère (20 January 1775 – 10 June 1836) was a French physicist and mathematician who was one of the founders of the science of classical electromagnetism, which he referred to as electrodynamics. He made also important contributions in chemistry and philosophy. He is also the inventor of numerous applications, such as the solenoid (a term coined by him) and the electrical telegraph. As an autodidact, Ampère was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and professor at the École polytechnique and the Collège de France.
The SI unit of electric current, the ampere (A), is named after him. His name is also one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. The term kinematic is the English version of his cinématique, which he constructed from the Greek κίνημα kinema ("movement, motion"), itself derived from κινεῖν kinein ("to move").

Occupation & Career

physicist, mathematician, engineer, philosopher, chemist, inventor, university teacher

Education

École polytechnique

Accomplishments, Inventions & Publications

Knight of the Legion of Honour; Foreign Member of the Royal Society; 72 names on the Eiffel Tower; honorary member of the Physics Association (Frankfurt am Main, Germany); Ampère's circuital law; Ampère's force law; Monge–Ampère equation; Memoir on the Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena, Uniquely Deduced from Experience

Legacy Highlights

Honors & Awards

72 names on the Eiffel Tower · Foreign Member of the Royal Society · honorary member of the Physics Association (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) · Knight of the Legion of Honour

Employer

Collège de France · Collège-lycée Ampère · École polytechnique · Lycée Lalande

Organizations & Memberships

Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Lyon · Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL · French Academy of Sciences · Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium · Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences · Royal Society of Edinburgh · Royal Society of London · Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences · Russian Academy of Sciences · Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences · Société Philomathique de Paris · Swiss Society of Nature Scrutineers

Notable Work

Ampère's circuital law · Ampère's force law · Memoir on the Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena, Uniquely Deduced from Experience · Monge–Ampère equation