Ohm's Law: History and Biography
video description
Just one thing [that kind of hit my eye]: the text in the thumbnail to this clip contains the text Why 1920s Scientists Rejected Ohms Law. It is incorrect to write 1920s like that. It is simply 1920s. As a rule, plurals are never apostrophised. Apostrophes are only used when pluralising would conflict with some other [usually-preexisting] meaning, such as in the case of pluralising meters (which is abbreviated with an m in Physics, which would become ms, but that would conflict with the unit name for milliseconds, which is ms, so in order to avoid this confusion, an apostrophe is normally used to signify a plural (thus getting ms as a plural of metres [in Physics. ]) If there is no conflict, no apostrophe is needed, hence, for example, writing a sentence such as I love music from the 70s is correct (here, the apostrophe is used to denote missing text, namely the missing 19), and INCORRECT is I love music from the 70s (apart from the fact that, syntactically, this last sentence makes no semantic sense) because the apostrophe here should be interpreted as something belonging to number 70 [specifically].
Date: 2022-12-27
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Comments and reviews: 19
noel
Some electrical devices don't follow ohms law well not in a literal sense electric arcs for example are a insulator becomes a conductor via ionisation of the air the current is controlled by the amount of ionisation produced. I worked in the power industry for 40 years switching and controlling large amounts of power sometimes whole towns and larger load centres. I witnessed many very large and powerful electric arcs on faulty equipment. In one instance I opened the incorrect isolator that was supplying a medium sized town it roared with three huge arcs that luckily didn't intersect and short circuit seeing my mistake I slamed it shut a d the arc disappeared as the isolator bridged the arc. I then went to the substation and none of the monitoring devices showed any discrepancies ( luckily for me ). This reinforced to me the ease of air that it can change from one stage to another instantly in the this case about 150 amps at 33kv just kept flowing fir about 4 seconds thru air.
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Some electrical devices don't follow ohms law well not in a literal sense electric arcs for example are a insulator becomes a conductor via ionisation of the air the current is controlled by the amount of ionisation produced. I worked in the power industry for 40 years switching and controlling large amounts of power sometimes whole towns and larger load centres. I witnessed many very large and powerful electric arcs on faulty equipment. In one instance I opened the incorrect isolator that was supplying a medium sized town it roared with three huge arcs that luckily didn't intersect and short circuit seeing my mistake I slamed it shut a d the arc disappeared as the isolator bridged the arc. I then went to the substation and none of the monitoring devices showed any discrepancies ( luckily for me ). This reinforced to me the ease of air that it can change from one stage to another instantly in the this case about 150 amps at 33kv just kept flowing fir about 4 seconds thru air.
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trevcam6
Why 1820s Scientists Rejected Ohm's Law
You worried me for a moment there because if true it immediately threw the 50 years of my life as an Electrical Engineer in the garbage.
Glad that you mentioned Ada Lovelace. Her father, Lord Byron, inherited Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, England as well as the title of Lord. That is near where I spent much of my early Engineering career and where my maternal coal-mining ancestors came from. What a character Byron was, to say the least. A man who lived his life to the full.
Ada, of course, was a brilliant mathematician who has only recently been widely recognized for her work. Like many women of science in what was a predominantly male preserve, and still is to a lesser extent (I think.
The history of the Byrons is well worth studying, so long as you're not easily shocked.
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Why 1820s Scientists Rejected Ohm's Law
You worried me for a moment there because if true it immediately threw the 50 years of my life as an Electrical Engineer in the garbage.
Glad that you mentioned Ada Lovelace. Her father, Lord Byron, inherited Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, England as well as the title of Lord. That is near where I spent much of my early Engineering career and where my maternal coal-mining ancestors came from. What a character Byron was, to say the least. A man who lived his life to the full.
Ada, of course, was a brilliant mathematician who has only recently been widely recognized for her work. Like many women of science in what was a predominantly male preserve, and still is to a lesser extent (I think.
The history of the Byrons is well worth studying, so long as you're not easily shocked.
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Sprkdoktorn
Being a phonetician, I found it a bit amusing to read all the comments on Kathy's allegedly wrong pronunciation of certain names. However, all was irrelevant as she wasn't speaking German or Italian, but English, and her English pronunciation was of course English, correct, native English.
But if, on the other hand, some of you would like to learn the proper pronunciation of any word in any language but lack a teacher, you are welcome to read my advice in Quality Practice Pronunciation with Audacity. Just search, and you will find. :-) Perfect pronunciation in a foreign language is much easier than you may think, but it's not without effort. :-)
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Being a phonetician, I found it a bit amusing to read all the comments on Kathy's allegedly wrong pronunciation of certain names. However, all was irrelevant as she wasn't speaking German or Italian, but English, and her English pronunciation was of course English, correct, native English.
But if, on the other hand, some of you would like to learn the proper pronunciation of any word in any language but lack a teacher, you are welcome to read my advice in Quality Practice Pronunciation with Audacity. Just search, and you will find. :-) Perfect pronunciation in a foreign language is much easier than you may think, but it's not without effort. :-)
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Nic
Kathy
I love your presentations, and like many took Ohms law for granted, but when you realise that he didn't have access to either a voltmeter or an ammeter, it makes the quest even more heroic. But may I respectfully ask if you could move your arms and hands out of shot, its rather distracting. I use hand gestures, when speaking or presenting but only to emphasise points, not words or syllables. You are not alone in this, many people do the same, even the BBC TV News presenters are doing it now over here. Keep up the good work, you have explained many things poorly understood for the last 70 years.
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Kathy
I love your presentations, and like many took Ohms law for granted, but when you realise that he didn't have access to either a voltmeter or an ammeter, it makes the quest even more heroic. But may I respectfully ask if you could move your arms and hands out of shot, its rather distracting. I use hand gestures, when speaking or presenting but only to emphasise points, not words or syllables. You are not alone in this, many people do the same, even the BBC TV News presenters are doing it now over here. Keep up the good work, you have explained many things poorly understood for the last 70 years.
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wrightmf
Fascinating history, Ohms Law is so simple and so obvious. It can get complicated in the sense of networks of many components with all kinds of sneak paths. I'm thinking we had those resistor network problems of EE homework and exams, find the voltage across this specific resistor and grueling tasks of calculations to get that (thevenins and nortens theorems. But wait, these early EEs had to figure this stuff from scratch, I wonder if Ohm was first suspicious of this V=IR is too simple to be true.
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Fascinating history, Ohms Law is so simple and so obvious. It can get complicated in the sense of networks of many components with all kinds of sneak paths. I'm thinking we had those resistor network problems of EE homework and exams, find the voltage across this specific resistor and grueling tasks of calculations to get that (thevenins and nortens theorems. But wait, these early EEs had to figure this stuff from scratch, I wonder if Ohm was first suspicious of this V=IR is too simple to be true.
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Jim
Lemme preface my remarks by saying that I love Kathy and her videos and will avidly what more of her videos.
And the official unit of conductance is the Seimens, after another German scientist. Mho is deprecated.
Ohm's law is tautological, but a useful tautology. Some materials exhibit a nearly linear relationship between voltage and current. For those that do not we simply call the ratio of voltage to current ohms.
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Lemme preface my remarks by saying that I love Kathy and her videos and will avidly what more of her videos.
And the official unit of conductance is the Seimens, after another German scientist. Mho is deprecated.
Ohm's law is tautological, but a useful tautology. Some materials exhibit a nearly linear relationship between voltage and current. For those that do not we simply call the ratio of voltage to current ohms.
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kEYBAWD
Yet another absolutely magnetic video. I had no idea that so much real life was behind Ohm's laws. These videos should be sold as boxed sets of DVDs. They are brilliant and, I am sure that they can attract young people to the wonders of science, These videos should be seen in the classroom. We love stories about people and hate dry-a dust lists of formulae. Your videos make the subject come to life. Thank you yet again.
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Yet another absolutely magnetic video. I had no idea that so much real life was behind Ohm's laws. These videos should be sold as boxed sets of DVDs. They are brilliant and, I am sure that they can attract young people to the wonders of science, These videos should be seen in the classroom. We love stories about people and hate dry-a dust lists of formulae. Your videos make the subject come to life. Thank you yet again.
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DIMENSION
Nice. I've always wondered about Ohm. Why is E used interchangeably with V for volts? (E=IR) (V=AR. Incredibly difficult to bring intangible ideas about physics to be accepted. I love electricity but why confuse students? So great to hear your clear explanations!
Einstein and his relativity was never widely accepted during his time. What is this thing called the displacement current Maxwell discovered?
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Nice. I've always wondered about Ohm. Why is E used interchangeably with V for volts? (E=IR) (V=AR. Incredibly difficult to bring intangible ideas about physics to be accepted. I love electricity but why confuse students? So great to hear your clear explanations!
Einstein and his relativity was never widely accepted during his time. What is this thing called the displacement current Maxwell discovered?
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Jim
Kathy, great video. Wheatstone bridged the gap. I love it. Incidentally our freshman electrical engineering professor was adamant that we differentiae between phenomena and units. We wrote Ohm's law as E=IR where E was electromotive force expressed in the unit of Volts I was the electrical current expressed in the unit of Amperes and R was the unit of electrical resistance expressed in the unit of Ohms.
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Kathy, great video. Wheatstone bridged the gap. I love it. Incidentally our freshman electrical engineering professor was adamant that we differentiae between phenomena and units. We wrote Ohm's law as E=IR where E was electromotive force expressed in the unit of Volts I was the electrical current expressed in the unit of Amperes and R was the unit of electrical resistance expressed in the unit of Ohms.
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Banter
In 1977 Fluke introduced the world's first handheld digital multimeter - the 8020A - which included a conductivity range in units of nS, or nano Siemens.
Later models eliminated this seldom-used range because, according Fluke's advert, _Nano Siemens, in particular, had its shortcomings. _ How they slipped this past the copy editors is anyone's guess.
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In 1977 Fluke introduced the world's first handheld digital multimeter - the 8020A - which included a conductivity range in units of nS, or nano Siemens.
Later models eliminated this seldom-used range because, according Fluke's advert, _Nano Siemens, in particular, had its shortcomings. _ How they slipped this past the copy editors is anyone's guess.
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RustyBolts
Hi Kathy. Do you think the Ohm's unit could be a variable subject to physical conditions such as air pressure altitude, velocity, momentum? If so this I think has implications for all theory describing the relation between all Space/physicality/time/event continuum. Thank you for your very deep and well presented videos.
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Hi Kathy. Do you think the Ohm's unit could be a variable subject to physical conditions such as air pressure altitude, velocity, momentum? If so this I think has implications for all theory describing the relation between all Space/physicality/time/event continuum. Thank you for your very deep and well presented videos.
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trep53
Healthy skepticism is one thing but trashing another researcher is another. Shame on Georg Pohl. I really like the way Kathy tells these stories. When I studied Electrical Engineering Technology in 1971 all of these physics concepts were so interesting to me but I never heard the story behind their research.
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Healthy skepticism is one thing but trashing another researcher is another. Shame on Georg Pohl. I really like the way Kathy tells these stories. When I studied Electrical Engineering Technology in 1971 all of these physics concepts were so interesting to me but I never heard the story behind their research.
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Belper
My father taught me Ohms Law on a long car journey we undertook when I was about 12 years old in 1952. I've used it all my life as an electronics engineer. It's so simple and elegant and I can't believe how it was denigrated by Ohm's contempories. Thanks for another excellent and entertaining lecture/video.
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My father taught me Ohms Law on a long car journey we undertook when I was about 12 years old in 1952. I've used it all my life as an electronics engineer. It's so simple and elegant and I can't believe how it was denigrated by Ohm's contempories. Thanks for another excellent and entertaining lecture/video.
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Jose
Hello Kathy and thank you for all your work putting these great historical videos. I'm watching the playlist and taking notes as I go. I noticed a discrepancy at the begging when you said he was born in 1787 but at the end of the video his statue states 1789. small detail to otherwise great video. thanks.
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Hello Kathy and thank you for all your work putting these great historical videos. I'm watching the playlist and taking notes as I go. I noticed a discrepancy at the begging when you said he was born in 1787 but at the end of the video his statue states 1789. small detail to otherwise great video. thanks.
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Whaddo
My understanding is that Ohm was fired from that Gymnasium because it was expected that he would teach in a classical way -- philosophy, logic, etc. To be tinkering around with wires and magnetic needles was low class. However, I don't know whether this really was the reason or merely a pretext.
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My understanding is that Ohm was fired from that Gymnasium because it was expected that he would teach in a classical way -- philosophy, logic, etc. To be tinkering around with wires and magnetic needles was low class. However, I don't know whether this really was the reason or merely a pretext.
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Terri
It's important to remember how quickly our understanding has progressed in a breathtakingly short time. I try to imagine how the Wright brothers would feel if they could see the awesome planes we have now. I think of Ohm and wonder how his brain would reel at what we've done with super conductors.
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It's important to remember how quickly our understanding has progressed in a breathtakingly short time. I try to imagine how the Wright brothers would feel if they could see the awesome planes we have now. I think of Ohm and wonder how his brain would reel at what we've done with super conductors.
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Noman
how you have found all of the history of different inventions described in all of your videos?
normally in our textbooks these important histories are not included. It seems there is no way to know about the history.
Then how you have found these histories with this level of accuracy?
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how you have found all of the history of different inventions described in all of your videos?
normally in our textbooks these important histories are not included. It seems there is no way to know about the history.
Then how you have found these histories with this level of accuracy?
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Sky
Your topics are fascinating and well chosen. Your discussion is well researched and well presented. I would like to make a suggestion, and please take this as a constructive suggestion, not criticism. Your hand motions are distracting and do not contribute anything helpful.
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Your topics are fascinating and well chosen. Your discussion is well researched and well presented. I would like to make a suggestion, and please take this as a constructive suggestion, not criticism. Your hand motions are distracting and do not contribute anything helpful.
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Poppa
Absolutely wonderful. I feel as though you have turned on a light bulb over my head. It is unfortunate that over the centuries so many people who have made scientific advances that have benefitted mankind have suffered for the gifts they have given us. Many thanks.
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Absolutely wonderful. I feel as though you have turned on a light bulb over my head. It is unfortunate that over the centuries so many people who have made scientific advances that have benefitted mankind have suffered for the gifts they have given us. Many thanks.
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