Michael Faraday
...ute of Science, and asked for a job. Impressed by Michael’s interest and determination, Sir Humphry Davy took Michael as his laboratory assistant on March 1, 1813. Once again, he took this opportunity to learn from his surroundings. He became quite the able scientist despite his humble beginnings. Amazingly, Michael Faraday, born in a low-class society, possessed enough determination to raise himself to the top ranks of English science. Interestingly he was able to stay meek and modest despite his accomplishments. His well-known accomplishments were discovering chlorine liquefaction, discovering benzene, discovering electromagnetic and magneto-electric induction, and proving that electricity induced from a magnet, voltaic electricity produced by a battery, and static electricity were all the same. Faraday’s experiment to discover electromagnetic induction was ingenious. Merrill Physics: Principles & Problems defines electromagnetic induction as “production of electric field or current due to change in magnetic flux.” Michael Guillen, Ph.D., describes Faraday’s preparation for the experiment to test for electromagnetic induction in his book Five Equations That Change the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics. He says, “He began by wrapping a long piece of wire around one segment of an iron doughnut, then did the same around another segment, directly across from the first. If the wires were bandages, it would have appeared as if the doughnut’s circular arm had been wounded in two opposing places.” Faraday was going to send electricity through one wire, creating a magnetic field around the entire ring, and measure to see if the other wire carried electricity. Simply put, he was testing if magnetism would produce electricity. When he first electrified the wire, the wire carried only a small amount of electric current for a little while. When he removed the power source from the first wire, the other wire once again carried a momentary electric current. Michael Guillen’s book shows that after many tests in which he connected and disconnected the power source, increasing and decreasing the magnetic ...