Page "André-Marie Ampère" Paragraph 9

Ampère also provided a physical understanding of the electromagnetic relationship, theorizing the existence of an “ electrodynamic molecule ” ( the forerunner of the idea of the electron ) that served as the component element of both electricity and magnetism.

Using this physical explanation of electromagnetic motion, Ampère developed a physical account of electromagnetic phenomena that was both empirically demonstrable and mathematically predictive.

In 1827 Ampère published his magnum opus, Mémoire sur la théorie mathématique des phénomènes électrodynamiques uniquement déduite de l ’ experience ( Memoir on the Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena, Uniquely Deduced from Experience ), the work that coined the name of his new science, electrodynamics, and became known ever after as its founding treatise.

In 1827 he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society and in 1828, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

In recognition of his contribution to the creation of modern electrical science, an international convention signed in 1881 established the ampere as a standard unit of electrical measurement, along with the coulomb, volt, ohm, and watt, which are named, respectively, after Ampère ’ s contemporaries Charles-Augustin de Coulomb of France, Alessandro Volta of Italy, Georg Ohm of Germany, and James Watt of Scotland.