Historical background to the advent of electromagnetism

In the late eighteenth century, there was not a consensus among philosophers of nature regarding the possibility of physical interaction between electricity and magnetism. The followers of the so-called Laplacian Research Program believed that electrical phenomena were distinct nature of magnetic ph...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Daniel Gardelli
Format: Article
Language:Spanish
Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) 2018-04-01
Series:Caderno Brasileiro de Ensino de Física
Subjects:
Online Access:https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/fisica/article/view/52399
Description
Summary:In the late eighteenth century, there was not a consensus among philosophers of nature regarding the possibility of physical interaction between electricity and magnetism. The followers of the so-called Laplacian Research Program believed that electrical phenomena were distinct nature of magnetic phenomena and therefore an electromagnetic interaction would be impossible to be observed. However, members of the philosophical movement known as Naturphilosophie defended the possibility of interrelation between the different phenomena observed in nature, including electrical with magnetic. In this paper, we will analyze the main features of these two philosophical currents and how Naturphilosophie, in particular, ended up influencing the research of the Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851) that led to the emergence of electromagnetism.
ISSN:1677-2334
2175-7941