Oersted's Experiment: Why it is Important & Why it is so WEIRD

In 1820, Hans Christian Oersted did a revolutionary experiment: he put a compass under a wire. Wait, why is that important and why is that weird? Watch the video and find out!

[@clsa1370]

As someone with a historical bent, I really appreciate the way you explain the context of scientific discoveries. I find not only tremendously interesting, but extremely elucidating. For once I think I might understand not only the how but also the why! Thank you.

[@larslover6559]

'The harder you work the luckier you get" Oerstad deserves all the credit for discovering electromagnetism! Good that the real legends in electric discoveries and inventions are getting out of the big ominous Edison shadow

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I just feel like the whole Oerstad discovered it by accident really takes away from his accomplishment.

[@larslover6559]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics yes agree. It makes for a "good story" though.

[@varahamihiragopu6667]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics What is utterly bewildering to me is that from Gilbert in 1600 upto Oersted in 1820, for 220 years no one tried to bring a magnet near their electric devices!!!

[@yesemitesam333]

I enjoyed that immensly, Thank you. When I was a kid at school (early 1970s) in Scotland our Physics text books were in series called "Nat Phil 1, 2, 3, ....". I had never heard of Natural Philosophy and it was only when I went to university to study history that the penny dropped. Looking back it was nice that our textbooks gave due reverence to these pioneer scientists.

[@CharlesCarlsonC3]

These are so good! I hadn't thought much about the implications of creating a battery that could deliver a significant amount of current until I watched this video. Static charge is only going to get you so far in making observations about the flow of electrons. Clearly, "the invention" of the battery greatly affected the discoveries that followed. I love the connection with Kant as well.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Charles Carlson I’m so glad you are enjoying the videos.

[@earlgray7003]

I love how immaculately people dressed, just to perform science experiments, in olden days.

[@varahamihiragopu6667]

Only with astronomy and electricity and sometimes with chemicals With coal, minerals, textiles, medicine, geology, etc dressing up was not an option during the experiment - only for lectures and meetings

[@arctic_haze]

Fun fact. The magnetic field can be seen as a relativistic correction to the electrostatic force. This is why the charges need to move. If you do not believe me, check the Purcell "Electricity and Magnetism" textbook, chapter 5. Its first subchapter is actually titled "From Oersted to Einstein" 😀 PS. Quoting the introduction to the chapter: "In short, the magnetic force is a consequence of Coulomb’s law, charge invariance, and relativity".

[@JustNow42]

Einstein was not born at that time. And by the way the Maxwell-Heaviside equations describe the properties of the fields. The mag fields function like a kind of kineticenergy to the electric field.

[@arctic_haze]

@@JustNow42 At what time? 🤔 PS. At Oersted's time? I find it cute that you think the theory of relativity cannot explain things discovered before it's author's birth.

[@arctic_haze]

@@JustNow42 Have you noticed that the Maxwell equations transform correctly only with Lorenz transformation? This means they are part of relativistic physics discovered before Einstein. By the way Lorenz derived it in order to find a way to correctly transform electromagnetic fields between inertial frames of reference but did not see the implications (Einstein did).

[@supermikeb]

She is doing a new video on magnetism now I heard. It should be out in about a week.

[@joeshumo9457]

I’m just glad that I can work with it and understand how it works without worrying about why it works. I can find an unlimited number of sources that explain it easily.

[@halweilbrenner9926]

Electricity is a little mysterious. Observing through experimentation is seeing effects. Don't always know "WHY".

[@klocugh12]

1:48 Nice touch to include that little demonstration

[@brucewinningham4959]

Kathy, I love your Enthusiasm for and Knowledge of Physics, Science, and the History of Science. Your videos on Electricity are superb. I have heard it said "Chemistry is basically another form of Physics that deals with the various parts of Atoms, Molecules, the Elements, etc. and how they interact. Would you agree or disagree?

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I don’t feel like I know enough chemistry to agree or disagree. I think of chemistry as a branch of physics but I’m sure a chemist would consider physics a branch of chemistry. 🤷🏻‍♀️.

[@JESL_TheOnlyOne]

With respects, Mr. Winningham is correct. The distinction we make between chemistry and physics is essentially artificial and has a lot to do with the histories. of the disciplines (basic chemistry was late 18th century). It is a very useful, almost necessary, distinction, though. Practical chemistry is macroscopic and occurs at the scale of ordinary life.

[@janami-dharmam]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics There is a famous joke " Chemistry is the physics of the outermost electrons" - but seriously they have been independent since the beginning of alchemy

[@varahamihiragopu6667]

Contrast with Ernest Rutherford, who said, "All science is either physics or stamp collecting"

[@craigkeller]

Great videos! Thank you 🙏

[@burkean]

Compared to the last video I saw on this channel, I like the fact that it it shorter. It looks like you tried to condense the information. I like the occasional use of visuals. And I like the relatively muted hand gestures ;-)

[@fugguhber4699]

Thank you. Kathy, keep up the good work........ science history is wonderful. thumbs UP

[@dwainseppala4469]

Great stuff! Every time I hear your opening and closing jingle I cringe. With a jingle like that, Kathy’s gotta be good!

[@philjamieson5572]

Thanks for this excellent piece.

[@FriesOfTheDead]

What was he doing during those14 years of trying to see if magnets and electricity had any relationship, if not putting a wire near a compass?

[@Hauketal]

To see the effect, the wire and the rotation axis of the needle have to be parallel. If he always had them perpendicular, nothing.

[@vk2ig]

@@Hauketal Yes and no. The video shows the rotation of a compass needle when the compass is lying on the table and the wire lying on top of the compass. The axis of rotation of the compass needle is normal to the plane in which the wire lies. When the wire carries current, the compass needle moves to align itself with what can be visualised as the part of the circular lines of the magnetic field under the wire in a plane at right angles to the wire. Now, if Oersted was lying the wire beside the compass, so that the needle and wire were in the same plane, then there wouldn't be much noticeable effect on the compass needle, especially given the low currents delivered by the available sources of that time. Nowadays, if you did that experiment with amps of current flowing through the wire thus generating a stronger magnetic field, you would see the compass needle trying to swing around towards the wire while one end of the needle is pulled up against the top and the other end is pulled down towards the bottom of the compass housing.

[@flvnow]

Maybe he was trying to use static electricity, or as mentioned expected to find the relationship in the battery not the eire

[@abelquiron2653]

Another great video. Thanks.

[@SteveRaynerMakes]

Loving these videos

[@randomblogger2835]

Oerstead's "wrong" spiraling current foreshadows the Poynting vector

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Oh good point!

[@martinmalloy8119]

thanks again for another fantastic video...

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I was always taught that Oersted discovered it by accident and was really shocked to learn the real story.

[@ramziahmed1677]

Great expliation and history of science 👍

[@JustNow42]

Kathy, I love your presentations, May be mention that Gian Domenico Romagnosi described for the first time how a compass needle was affected by a electrical curren in two news articles in the towns Trento and Rovereto in May 1802, 2 years after the Voltabattery first time was constructed. It war largely missed by the scientific community. ( but in 1831 Ørsted remarked on this after his discovery in 1820). I am actually Danish like Ørsted and now I suppose I will be charged with treason for disclosing this well kept secret in Denmark.

[@saintielle]

Thank you!

[@1Clavdivs]

It is easy to see how playing with battery, wire and compass anyone could make this discovery; rather Volta was the father of the age of electricity. His invention required inspiration and his battery provided the moving charge never before available, which started this cascade of discovery.

[@teaganblackburn]

I love you! Teacher to teacher! Great videos!

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

teagan blackburn thanks! Feel free to share. By the way, what do you teach?

[@monoki8708]

Wow this was definitely a video!!

[@jimmorgan6213]

These are thrilling!

[@TheElectra5000]

This series is like playing Skyrim: I can't wait to finish it so that I can start again!!

[@adhipmitra]

Very good.

[@paddy6295]

Very interesting: (From an old Sparky).

[@rene-qc1wb]

It is teachers like you who should be getting multi million contracts.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Thank you! Frankly, I would like to be getting a contract worth any amount of $$ let alone multi-million.

[@bombud1]

So then, what do you guys think about electric universe, plasma cosmology, safire project?

[@LucasPinheiroV8]

Thanks from Brazil!

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

You’re welcome, cheers from California

[@MotoDeSoto]

Well done. 😎

[@rogerdudra178]

Most interesting. I've always said I could learn on youtube.

[@NicleT]

You always make my [Fara]day!

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I love that. Thanks.

[@youssefsameh196]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics translate into Arabic,please.

[@halweilbrenner9926]

Fascinating way to learn like the early experimenters did

[@UNRELATIVE]

I enjoy you videos, Kathy. Do you know anything about the nuclear forces?

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

A little.

[@johnbingham6355]

And poor old oersted hardly gets a mention in physics textbooks, but all concentrate on amperes law.F =BIL. l being the length "pi r around the coil.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

john bingham not to mention the units of current is named after him! I’m the reverse, barely mention Ampere

[@johnbingham6355]

Hello Kathy.I find amperes law one of the easiest to visualise,and apply;as opposed to the Biot Savart law,for example.It invariably springs to mind even in understanding Faradays,and Lenz"s induction laws.

[@davidwilkie9551]

Quantum-fields=> Mechanism of e-Pi-i QM-TIME Holographic standing wave crystallisation. Orientation, orthogonality time-timing is pure-math relative-timing motion information differentiates ratio-rates, best intuited by practising GD&P line-of-sight projection-drawing of i-reflection containment in log-antilog Bose-Einsteinian Quantum-fields Condensation Actuality.

[@SkydiveHake]

In this video, the wire on the table should be vertical, not laying on the compass

[@monkerud2108]

Well i have one problem with what you just said, no charges come without magnetism, electrons and protons have magnetic moments independent of motion :p

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

electrons and protons only have magnetic moments because of their motion (I think)

[@Iron44You]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics The compass needle is made from a ferromagnetic material and a ferromagnetic material has the magnetic moments of the electron spins aligned. Although spin implies motion the electron is a point particle and so nothing is really spinning and some physicists regard the spin as an intrinsic property of the electron like the charge of an electron - with that interpretation static electrons do have a magnetic moment of a Bohr magnetron en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr_magneton although it is still something of a philosophical question as to whether the motion of a charge is necessary for a magnetic field to appear. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_magnetic_moment By the way, great youtube series.

[@patriciajrs46]

Cool.

[@beachdancer]

Gyroscopes. The things that don't move in the direction they are pushed.

[@ButchNews]

Good video. It gets the Butch stamp of approval. I just love electrons... can't live without them. For whatever it's worth, the electrons in my universe map are magnetic monopoles (always N) and have 20 parts I think are Gamma particles or, if broken up roughly could give you a Neutrino, or a variety... depends how the electron breaks up, but there are likely Neutrino and Gamma particles all over the place... too small to be more than empty space, to us... oh, another possible outcome, aside from 20 Gamma particles would be two xray particles and a neutrino. I have my own view of matter I'm working on, in my head. Magnetism I attribute to Gamma particles because of the short wave lengths that are so common and the magnetism would need a medium that was, likely, pretty much everywhere present, even in a vacuum.

[@jamesstuart3346]

0:30 Spelling mistake.

[@gristlevonraben]

Actually, static does move a compass, and so do the ends of a nine volt battery. Cool video!

[@janami-dharmam]

The 9V battery terminals are iron plated with nickel. But I do not understand about the static?

[@gristlevonraben]

@@janami-dharmam get a plastic drinking straw, make sure it is dry, rub it lengthways over and over again until it builds a static charge, always rub it in the same direction, no twisting. tie a thin cotton string around the middle of the straw, hang it up on a stick away from metal if you can, rub it again while on the string, the ends of the straw will now affect a compass quite easily, and the straw will have a north pole and a south pole. nine volt batter terminals will have poles all by themselves, if they are fully charged, and also will move a compass needle according to each terminal's pole.

[@janami-dharmam]

@@gristlevonraben If you have studied science in school, you do not have to do any such experiment because what you say is distilled nonsense.

[@gristlevonraben]

@@janami-dharmam it is an easy thing to do, you are just too lazy to try it. I did it, I should have recorded it, but even then, I think once people are told a lie long enough, they hate having their dogma contradicted, and people would call me a liar without even attempting to do it themselves, so why bother.

[@carultch]

@@gristlevonrabenLikely what happened there, is the electrostatic phenomenon of polarization. When you bring a charged object near a neutral conductor, it will polarize the charge distribution of the conductor, as the conductor's seek electrostatic equilibrium. Suppose the charged object is negatively charged. It will repel the electrons in the conductor, to drift to the far side, so that the near side becomes positively charged. As a result, the negatively charged object will attract the neutral object, since its nearest side is positively charged, and the attraction force on the oppositely charged near side, is greater than the repulsive force on the like-charged far side.

[@seazenbones6945]

❤

[@MyMy-tv7fd]

good

[@johnd9031]

Love science history.

[@Javaman92]

HOW did he create a device that measured current from a compass and wire!!!

[@gowdsake7103]

Put an electro magnet on a pointer with a light spring

[@pheenix42]

Mr. Ohm's first name is pronounced 'Gei-org'.

[@mikeadler434]

👍👍

[@brushbros]

Putting a wire beneath a compass only seems obvious today because it was not in the past.

[@Simcore999]

👍

[@LeMans512]

Fascinating-Mr. Spock

[@allanholmes5787]

CONTENT VERY GOOD Background musical noise is a REAL DRAG : (

[@julianramirez4465]

I love u so much.

[@Rabblewitz]

Ah yes, the right hand rule. Takes me back to college. 🙂

[@VictoriaAlfredSmythe]

thank you from manhattan

[@rockbore]

It was Faraday's young understudy, James Clerk Maxwell, who first coined the term, 'field', in connection with magnetic force. Anyone speaking on this topic will inevitable use the word field when they really mean force. This video has avoided that pitfall admirably. Another common error is to confuse the work of James Clerk Maxwell for Faraday's work. One way to avoid this is to ask the question, 'Does this involve hard maths?' If, 'yes', then it belongs to Maxwell, not Faraday.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

You might want to check out my videos about Faraday and about Maxwell. Did you know that Niels Bohr didn’t feel like he was very good at math (although he was far more skilled at it than Faraday)? Heisenberg used to say that Bohr was a Faraday not a Maxwell.

[@rockbore]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics that's a nice quote. Do you know the one about Newton Einstein and Maxwell?

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

No I don’t, Please tell me. When I saw the word Newton I was thinking about how Olivia Newton-John is Max born‘s granddaughter.

[@rockbore]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics So a journalist once made a statement to Einstein, probably expecting an affirmative reply, "You stand on the shoulders of Sir Issac Newton." "No." Says Albert, "I stand on the shoulders of James Clerk Maxwell. " JCM invented electromagnetic theory. It was born whole from a near standing start. Half of its equations predict QED. That is only one single accolade among several other firsts where he clearly demonstrated his preeminence as an experimentalist and a theoreotican, a very rare combo. Undoubtedly, he is the most underrated of all 'giants', as that quote clearly demonstrates. He is simply the greatest scientist to have ever lived. Certainly, the greatest physicist. And above all that, he was an exceptionally kind person. I hope you do a bit more digging, and I hope you learn to sing his praise. His memory deserves it.

[@adityaanandvi-a4686]

I can't understand

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Could you clarify? What are you confused about?

[@benquinneyiii7941]

Why did people shock themselves

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

They were bored. Seriously, there really wasn’t a lot of entertainment in the 17 and 1800s and they shocked each other for entertainment. My favorite person who did that with this amazing German man named Matthias Bose who started the electricity craze and would electrify beautiful women and then give them electric kisses, which would hurt and then write bad poetry about it. I have a video about him, he’s delightful.

[@clayz1]

At last! I know that electricity (e-lec-tricity) is weird.

[@das250250]

Your comment about the direction of magnet being at 90 degrees to current is still yet to complete its story ..

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

The Kaveman I’m not sure what you mean by this. Could you clarify?

[@das250250]

Kathy Loves Physics it means the story of E and its relationship with M is still ongoing and although maxwell and electrodynamics Q.E.D tell us they are inter connected the story is yet unfold further

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

The Kaveman ok good point. I hope I wasn’t implying that Oersted completed the story in 1820! I feel like this was the beginning of the story not the end.

[@das250250]

Kathy Loves Physics no the video was lovely , but few people think there is more to the story after q.e.d , but time will tell

[@rolandmousaa3110]

"Static charges do not move a magnet!" Disagree! If Electrostatic force is strong enough... it can "attract" a magnet! ESA - Proceedings on Electrostatics 2007 (Mousaa - inventor) Purdue University IN

[@ergbudster3333]

Yeah, um.. the word is properly spelled "separate". Only two "e's". Thanks.

[@nigratruo]

Well, the reason for these magnetic fields is that they are actually the reason electricity "flows", not the electrons, I did not know this until recently, very fascinating and not what we learn in school: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHmsmZqulttsgrs

[@perfectionbox]

Oersted: So you gentlemen see how, when the current is applied, the compass moves, and - Colleague: Yeah yeah yeah. If you hadn't discovered it, someone else would have, so stop milking it.

[@carultch]

From what I've learned about it, Oersted was trying to demonstrate that electricity was unrelated to magnetism, and he was expecting his demonstration to show that the compass to be indifferent to the current. Then, a student played with his demonstration during a break, and discovered that turning the compass 90 degrees from where Oersted set it up, was the secret to finding the connection between the two phenomena.

[@zubairlatif4374]

WHY ITS EXPERIMENT SO IMPOTANT WHY🤔🤔

[@jyvben1520]

It lead to electric motors and generators, most electricity is still being generated by magnetism ! the link between electricity and magnetism is the foundation.

[@leebarnes655]

Because in duplicating it for further study independently by several key players on their own workbenches, so many of the fundamental laws concerning electricity and magnetism became known and were refined within a short 15 year ( 4:19 ) period following Oersted's paper. This guy and this experiment did far more for humanity's knowledge base than the more popular heroes of physics. He is one of the giants that lent their shoulders so that others could stand upon him. Thanks for the spotlight put where it belongs, Kathy. Because I was clueless otherwise and that's not good at all.

[@alexmarshall4331]

More "wired" than weird👉🇬🇧👈👉💎👈

[@JanBruunAndersen]

Ørsted, not Oersted.

[@magicobject]

Would be great to lose the background sounds - exceptionally distracting.

[@supermikeb]

She stopped the background sounds like later videos. She can't remove them once posted.

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

So if I wrap my hand around the wire, with my fingers pointing with the north pole of the compass, my thumb is pointing in the direction of the conventional current! (This is known as they "Right Hand Rule") 😎

[@HarryGuit]

Hey Kathy, thank you for your clips! Very clear and easily understood, both for adults and teens. One tip I‘d have to offer: When you speak, you always have your upper lip drawn up high. It would look more pleasant if you didn‘t.

[@yetanotherjohn]

Well, the pilot of a WW1 airplane with a rotary engine would feel an intense gyroscopic force to a right angle of her forward travel, I wonder if gyroscopic effects are involved with electrical forces.

[@joeshumo9457]

Nope.

[@yetanotherjohn]

@@joeshumo9457 Do electrons not spin?

[@featherbrain7147]

I have to say, that if Oersted had had the idea that magnetism and electricity were linked, why did he take 14 years to find practical evidence? Your account may be a little distorted in my opinion. I was a hobbyist from age 11 and I found out a lot about electromagnetism in the 50's without much reading. He may have had trouble finding wire in those days, I suppose.

[@tonyduncan9852]

_"He may have had trouble finding wire in those days"_ - No. BOOKS. :)

[@jefffriedberg]

So what ????

[@grahamhodge8313]

A great video could have been made on this subject. Unfortunately, this is not it.

[@jsl151850b]

5:18 The way I heard it... Some scientist guy: "I will now prove that electricity has no magnetic properties" {Runs current through a wire with a compass next to it} "Huh. That's weird!"

[@dyssodia]

Can yu speek in chinese pls im not under stand😢😢🥳

[@leebarnes655]

In order for that to occur Kathy must find someone well versed in chinese and english and physics to write the translation and even then it would be shown as subtitles only when you select that for your desired language. She likely has no one to do this for her now and it requires doing this well before the video is released with a lot of work by the interpreter and Kathy during video setup and then uploading here. A very large learning curve to overcome.

[@davidwischer1335]

For goodness sake use the word ZERO when you quote a number as you are a science based channel. The letter ‘o’ is never a number. So many people think numbers contain a letter.

[@saginaw60]

Wish you would get rid of silly "electricity" vocals.

[@johnmichael9713]

Having a theme song that just repeats the same word over and over at the beginning and end of your video is extremely annoying. It's not a cute song, it just gets stuck in your head, and so I will not be watching your channel, even though it was good otherwise. I'm not exposing myself to that kind of psychological warfare that tries to force things into my mind by repeating them over and over.

[@brianbassett4379]

Yawn.