The idea of an electric field emerged in the mid-19th century, thanks to the pioneering work of Michael Faraday. Faraday introduced the concept to explain how a charged object, like a point charge, can influence the space around it without any physical contact. A point charge is an idealized small object with a specific amount … Read more
The story of the electric field begins in the early 19th century with a brilliant scientist named Michael Faraday. Faraday was fascinated by electricity and magnetism, which were relatively new and mysterious forces at the time. He conducted numerous experiments to understand how electric charges interact with each other. Faraday proposed that charges do not … Read more
The story of Coulomb’s Law begins with a French physicist named Charles-Augustin de Coulomb. In 1785, Coulomb made a groundbreaking discovery that would become a cornerstone of electrostatics. He was interested in understanding the forces that charged objects exert on each other. Coulomb conducted a series of experiments using a torsion balance, which is a … Read more
Long before the term ‘electricity’ was coined, ancient civilizations noticed strange forces at play. The Greeks, for example, found that rubbing amber (or ‘elektron’) with fur attracted light objects like feathers. This was the earliest recorded observation of static electricity. Fast forward to the 18th century, when the American polymath Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research … Read more
The story of electric charge begins in ancient times. The Greeks were among the first to discover electrical phenomena. Around 600 BC, a Greek philosopher named Thales of Miletus observed that rubbing amber with fur would cause it to attract small objects like dust and feathers. This was the earliest known study of static electricity, … Read more
In the late 18th century, the concept of heat and temperature was a hot topic among scientists. They were curious about why different materials behaved differently when heated. This curiosity led to the birth of the concept of specific heat capacity. The story begins with a Scottish scientist named Joseph Black. He was a clever … Read more
The story of water’s peculiar behavior begins in the mid-19th century. In 1859, a British scientist named W.J.M. Rankine made a groundbreaking discovery. He observed that when water freezes, it expands and occupies more space than it does in its liquid form. This was contrary to the common behavior of substances, which typically contract upon … Read more
The concept of materials expanding with heat has likely been observed since ancient times, as people noticed that hot days could cause doors to stick or metals to become more pliable. The scientific study of thermal expansion began during the Renaissance. This period marked the birth of modern science, with scholars starting to quantify and … Read more
The concept of temperature—how hot or cold something is—has fascinated humans for centuries. Even ancient civilizations noticed the effects of temperature on their surroundings. However, finding precise ways to measure temperature posed a challenge. Whether ancient Greeks or Chinese had specific ways to measure temperature is unclear. However, we can trace the history of temperature … Read more
The concept of heat—how hot or cold something is—has intrigued humans for centuries. Even ancient civilizations noticed the effects of temperature on their surroundings. However, finding precise ways to measure heat posed a challenge. Ancient Greeks and Chinese likely noticed temperature changes, but they didn’t have specific methods for measuring heat. Their observations laid the … Read more