Hans Christian Oersted
Hans Christian Oersted, 1777-1851, Danish
physicist.
Oersted convincingly demonstrated the relationship between
electricity and magnetism in 1820 by showing that a
compass needle will move to right angles to a wire carrying
electric current placed near it. He at once confirmed the
hypothesis of Gilbert and laid the
ground for the more sophisticated work of Ampère. The oersted is a
unit of magnetic intensity, centimeter-gram-second
electromagnetic unit of magnetic intensity.
