Hans Christian Oersted Hans Christian Oersted was a distinguished physicist and chemist who is related with some of the most important scientific contributions of his time, including the discovery of electromagnetism.

Oersted was born August 14, 1777, in Rudkøbing, a village on the island of Langeland, Denmark. His father was a practicing pharmacist, and while helping in the family business as a youngster Oersted was first introduced to chemistry and science.

In the spring of 1820, while conducting experiments and performing classroom demonstrations for the benefit of his university students, Oersted located an electrically charged wire near a compass, causing the needle on the compass to move, deflected at a right angle. When he removed the electrical charged, the needle returned to its original position.

The observation of this phenomenon clearly established a relationship between magnetism and electricity, and through a series of subsequent experiments Oersted became the first to identify the force of electromagnetism and to discover that, in addition to produce thermal energy, electric current produces a magnetic force.

However, he couldn’t explain this phenomenon.

Unit 5. Page 22: How was electromagnetism discovered?