Georg Ohm

Georg Simon Ohm (16 March 1789 – 6 July 1854) was a German physicist.

As a high school teacher, Ohm began his research with the recently invented electrochemical cell, invented by Italian Count Alessandro Volta.

Using equipment of his own creation, Ohm determined that there is a direct proportionality between the potential difference (voltage) applied across a conductor and the resultant electric current -- now known as Ohm's law.

Using the results of his experiments, Ohm was able to define the fundamental relationship among voltage, current, and resistance, which represents the true beginning of electrical circuit analysis.

The discovery of Ohm's law

Ohm's law (IR=V) was first discovered by Henry Cavendish, but Cavendish did not publish his discovery. Instead, Ohm published it under his name. Ohm's law appeared in the famous book Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet (The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically) (1827) in which he gave his complete theory of electricity.

It is interesting that Ohm presents his theory as one of contiguous action, a theory which opposed the concept of action at a distance. Ohm believed that the communication of electricity occurred between "contiguous particles" which is the term Ohm himself uses.