Physicist Faraday: biography, discoveries

English physicist Michael Faraday, who grew up in a poor family, became one of the greatest scientists in the history of mankind. His outstanding achievements were made at a time when science was the lot of people born in privileged families. In his honor, a unit of electric capacity is named Farad.

Faraday (physicist): brief biography

Michael Faraday was born on September 22, 1791 in the capital of Great Britain, London. He was the third child in the family of James and Margaret Faradeyev. His father was a blacksmith who had poor health. Before marriage, his mother worked as a servant. The family lived poorly.

Up to the age of 13, Michael attended a local school where he received his primary education. To help the family, he began to work as a messenger in a bookstore. The boy's zeal impressed his employer. A year later, he was promoted to a bookbinder student.

Binding and science

Michael Faraday wanted to learn more about the world; He was not limited to the restoration of books. After diligent daily work, he spent all his free time reading books that he intertwined.

Gradually, he discovered that he was carried away by science. Especially he liked two books:

• The British Encyclopedia is the source of his knowledge of electricity and much more.
• "Conversations about Chemistry" - 600 pages about chemistry in an accessible presentation of the authorship of Jane Mars.

He was so fascinated that he began to spend part of his meager earnings on chemicals and equipment to confirm the truth of what he was reading.

Expanding his scientific knowledge, he heard that the famous scientist John Tatum was going to give a series of public lectures on natural philosophy (physics). To attend lectures, it was necessary to pay a fee of one shilling - too much for Michael Faraday. His elder brother, a blacksmith, impressed by the growing devotion of his brother to science, gave him the necessary amount.

Acquaintance with Humphry Davy

Faraday took another step toward science when William Dance, a bookstore client, asked Michael if he had any desire to get tickets for lectures at the Royal Institute.

The lecturer, Sir Humphry Davy, was one of the most famous scientists of the time in the world. Faraday jumped at the chance and attended four lectures on one of the newest problems in chemistry - the determination of acidity. He watched the experiments Davy had conducted in the lectures.

It was a world in which he wanted to live. Faraday recorded, and then made so many additions to the notes that he produced a 300-page manuscript, which he interlaced and sent Davy as a token of gratitude.

At this time in the backyard of the bookstore Michael began to conduct more complex experiments to create an electric battery of copper coins and zinc disks, separated by moist salt paper. He used it to decompose chemicals, for example, such as magnesium sulfate. In this field of chemistry, Humphry Davy was a pioneer.

In October 1812, Faraday's apprenticeship was completed, and he began to work as a bookbinder with another employer, whom he found unpleasant.

There would be no happiness, but misfortune helped

And there was a happy event for Faraday. As a result of an unsuccessful experiment, Humphry Davy was injured: this temporarily affected his ability to write. Michael managed to record for several days for Davy, impressed by the book that he sent to him.

When a short period of work as an assistant ended, Faraday sent a note to the scientist asking him to hire him as his assistant. Soon after, one of Davy's lab workers was fired for violating discipline, and Humphrey asked Michael if he would like to take a vacant seat.

Did he want to work at the Royal Institute with one of the most famous scientists in the world? It was a rhetorical question.

Career at the Royal Institute

Faraday took up his duties on March 1, 1813, at the age of 21.

He was well paid and allocated for living room in the attic of the Royal Institute. Michael was very pleased, and his connection with this institution was no longer interrupted for 54 years, for which he managed to become a professor of chemistry.

Faraday's work consisted in the preparation of equipment for conducting experiments and lectures at the Royal Institute. Initially, he was dealing with nitrogen trichloride, an explosive that injured Davy. Michael, too, in the next explosion briefly fainted, and when Humphrey was injured again, experiments with this compound were discontinued.

After 7 months of work at the Royal Institute, Davy took Faraday with him on a tour of Europe, lasting 18 months. During this time, Michael managed to meet great scientists, such as Andre-Marie Amper in Paris and Alessandro Volta in Milan. In a sense, the tour replaced him with a university education - Faraday learned a lot during this time.

Most of the tour, however, he was unhappy, because in addition to scientific and secretarial work was to serve Davy and his wife. The wife of the scientist did not consider Faraday equal to himself because of his origin.

Upon his return to London, everything fell into place. The Royal Institute renewed Michael's contract and increased his remuneration. Davy even began to mention his assistance in scientific work.

In 1816, at the age of 24, Faraday read his first lecture on the properties of matter. She passed in the City Philosophical Society. Then in the Quarterly Scientific Journal he published his first scientific article on the analysis of calcium hydroxide.

In 1821, at the age of 29, Faraday was promoted to the post of head of the economy and laboratory of the Royal Institute. In the same year he married Sarah Barnard. Michael and his wife lived in the institute for most of the next 46 years, no longer in the attic, but in a comfortable room that Humphry Davy once occupied.

In 1824, Faraday's biography (physics) was marked by his election as a member of the Royal Society. This was a recognition that he had become a prominent scientist.

In 1825 the physicist Faraday became the director of the laboratory.

In 1833, he became Fuller Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institute of Great Britain. Faraday held this post until the end of his life.

In 1848 and 1858 he was invited to lead the Royal Society, but he refused.

Scientific achievements

To describe Faraday's discoveries in physics, it will take more than one book. It is no accident that Albert Einstein in his office stored photos of only three scientists: Isaac Newton, James Maxwell and Michael Faraday.

Strangely enough, although even during the life of the scientist they began to use the word "physicist", he himself did not like it, and he always called himself a philosopher. Faraday was a man who went to the discoveries through experiments, and he was known for never giving up ideas that came from scientific intuition.

If he believed that the idea was worth it, he continued the experiments, despite many failures, until he reached the expected or until he was convinced that mother nature had proved him wrong, which was extremely rare.

So what did Faraday discover in physics? Here are some of his most notable achievements.

1821: discovery of electromagnetic rotation

It became a harbinger of what ultimately led to the creation of an electric motor. The discovery was based on Oersted's theory of the magnetic properties of a wire through which an electric current passes.

1823: gas liquefaction and cooling

In 1802, John Dalton expressed the opinion that all gases can be liquefied at low temperatures or high pressures. The physicist Faraday proved this by experience. He first turned chlorine and ammonia into a liquid.

Liquid ammonia was even more interesting because, as Michael Faraday noted, the physics of the evaporation process caused cooling. The principle of cooling by artificial evaporation was publicly demonstrated by William Cullen in Edinburgh in 1756. The scientist, using a pump, lowered the pressure in the flask with ether, resulting in its rapid evaporation. This caused cooling, and ice formed on the outside of the bulb from the moisture of the air.

The importance of Faraday's discovery was that mechanical pumps could turn gas into liquid at room temperature. Then the liquid evaporated, cooling all around, the resulting gas could be collected and compressed by a pump into the liquid again, repeating the cycle. This is how modern refrigerators and freezers work.

In 1862, at the World London Exhibition, Ferdinand Carre demonstrated the world's first commercial ice machine. In the car, ammonia was used as the cooling liquid, and it produced ice at a rate of 200 kg per hour.

1825: The discovery of benzene

Historically, benzene has become one of the most important substances in chemistry, both in a practical sense, ie, it is used in the creation of new materials, and in the theoretical - for understanding the chemical bond. The scientist discovered benzene in oily residues of gas production for lighting in London.

1831: Faraday's law, the formula, the physics of electromagnetic induction

This was an extremely important discovery for the future of science and technology. Faraday's law (physics) states that an alternating magnetic field causes an electric current in the circuit, and the generated electromotive force is directly proportional to the rate of change of the magnetic flux. One of its possible records is | E | = | dΦ / dt |, where E is the emf, and Φ is the magnetic flux.

For example, moving a horseshoe magnet along a wire produces an electric current, since the movement of the magnet causes an alternating magnetic field. Before that, the only source of current was the battery. Michael Faraday, whose discoveries in physics have shown that the movement can be turned into electricity, or, more scientifically, the kinetic energy can be converted to electrical, so that it is implicated in the fact that most of the energy in our homes today is produced precisely on this Principle.

Rotation (kinetic energy) is converted into electricity by electromagnetic induction. A rotation, in turn, is produced by the action on the turbines of a high-pressure steam produced by the energy of coal, gas or an atom, or by the pressure of water in hydroelectric plants, or by air pressure in wind power plants.

1834: Electrolysis laws

Faraday the physicist made the main contribution to the creation of a new science of electrochemistry. It explains what happens at the interface between the electrode and the ionized substance. Thanks to electrochemistry, we use lithium-ion batteries and batteries that supply modern mobile equipment. Faraday's laws are important for our understanding of electrode reactions.

1836: The invention of a shielded chamber

Physicist Faraday found that when the electrical conductor is charged, the entire excess charge accumulates on its outer side. This means that inside the room or a cell made of metal, an additional charge does not appear. For example, a person dressed in a Faraday suit, that is, with a metal lining, is not exposed to external electricity. In addition to protecting people, the Faraday cage can be used to conduct electrical or electrochemical experiments sensitive to external disturbances. Shielded cameras can also create dead zones for mobile communication.

1845: discovery of the Faraday effect - magneto-optical effect

Another important experiment in the history of science was the experiment that first proved the connection between electromagnetism and light, which in 1864 was fully described by the equations of James Clerk Maxwell. Physicist Faraday established that light is an electromagnetic wave: "When the opposite magnetic poles were on the same side, it exerted an effect on the polarized beam, which thus proves the connection between magnetic force and light ...

1845: The discovery of diamagnetism as a property of all matter

Most people are familiar with ferromagnetism by the example of ordinary magnets. Faraday (a physicist) discovered that all substances are diamagnetic, mostly weak, but strong ones also occur. Diamagnetism is the opposite of the direction of the applied magnetic field. For example, if you place the North Pole in a strongly diamagnetic substance, it will repel. Diamagnetism in materials, induced by very strong modern magnets, can be used to achieve levitation. Even living things, such as frogs, are diamagnetic and can soar in a strong magnetic field.

the end

Michael Faraday, whose discoveries in physics made a revolution in science, died August 25, 1867 in London at the age of 75 years. His wife Sarah lived longer. The couple had no children. All his life he was a devout Christian and belonged to a small Protestant sect of Sandemanians.

Even during his lifetime, Faraday was offered burial in Westminster Abbey, along with the kings and queens of Britain and scholars, like Isaac Newton. He refused for the sake of a more modest ceremony. His grave, where Sarah is also buried, can be found at Highgate Cemetery in London.