Editing History of physics (section)

===Electromagnetism===

[[File:Faraday-Millikan-Gale-1913.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Michael Faraday]] (1791–1867)]]

In 1800, [[Alessandro Volta]] invented the electric battery (known as the [[voltaic pile]]) and thus improved the way electric currents could also be studied. A year later, [[Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]] demonstrated the wave nature of light&nbsp;– which received strong experimental support from the work of [[Augustin-Jean Fresnel]]&nbsp;– and the principle of interference. In 1820, [[Hans Christian Ørsted]] found that a current-carrying conductor gives rise to a magnetic force surrounding it, and within a week after Ørsted's discovery reached France, [[André-Marie Ampère]] discovered that two parallel electric currents will exert forces on each other. In 1821, [[Michael Faraday]] built an electricity-powered motor, while [[Georg Ohm]] stated his law of electrical resistance in 1826, expressing the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance in an electric circuit.

In 1831, Faraday (and independently [[Joseph Henry]]) discovered the reverse effect, the production of an electric potential or current through magnetism&nbsp;– known as [[Faraday's law of induction|electromagnetic induction]]; these two discoveries are the basis of the electric motor and the electric generator, respectively.

In 1873, [[James Clerk Maxwell]] published ''[[A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism]]'', which described the transmission of energy in wave form through a "luminiferous ether", and suggested that light was such a wave.  This was confirmed in 1888 when Helmholtz student [[Heinrich Hertz]] generated and detected electromagnetic radiation in the laboratory.
<ref>{{Harvtxt|Buchwald|1985}}</ref>
<ref>{{Harvtxt|JungnickelMcCormmach|1986}}</ref>
<ref>{{Harvtxt|Hunt|1991}}</ref>
<ref>{{Harvtxt|Buchwald|1994}}</ref>