Georg Ohm Birthday & Fun Facts

Georg Ohm Birthday Highlights

Birth Name

Georg Simon Ohm

Place Of Birth

Erlangen, Germany

Age

234 years old

Birth Date

March 15 1789

Georg Ohm Facts

Child Star?

no

Occupation

Physicist

Education & Qualifications

Erlangen Gymnasium

Parents

Maria Elizabeth Beck, Johann Wolfgang Ohm

Siblings

Elizabeth Barbara, Martin Ohm

Georg Ohm was a mathematician and German physicist.

He was born in Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany on March 16, 1789. He has become a household name owing to Ohm's Law, which he invented.

Ohm's Law states the relationship between electric current, electric force, and electrical resistance. It says that the current flow that runs through a conductor is inversely proportional to the found resistance and directly proportional to the voltage or potential difference. The discovery became very important for the science field as it set a precedent for electrical circuit analysis. Before Ohm, many tried to prove the hypothesis and failed, but Ohm succeeded. However, his idea was rejected like the other scientists before him. Furthermore, his research was infallible, so it was later accepted and made into a physics law. You also may not know that he wrote an elementary geometry textbook!

What was Georg Ohm's net worth?

Georg Ohm was a German physicist and teacher in the 1800s. He came from humble roots, and throughout his life, he had to struggle financially. Hence, his net worth was quite low, but the exact amount that he earned is not known.

How much did Georg Ohm earn per year?

Georg Ohm founded Ohm's Law. He was a successful physicist and teacher, but he struggled financially. It's also not known how much physicists and teachers used to earn in the 1800s in Germany.

How tall was Georg Ohm?

Georg Ohm was alive back in the 1800s, so no record of his height could be found.

How old was Georg Ohm?

Georg Ohm died on July 6, 1854, and at the time of his death, he was 65 years old.

Georg Ohm was born in Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany on March 16, 1789. His mother, Maria Elizabeth Beck, was a tailor's daughter, and his father, Johann Wolfgang Ohm, was a locksmith. His father was a self-taught man, and he taught his children himself. He had a sister named Elizabeth Barbara and a brother named Martin Ohm. His brother became a well-known mathematician like him as well. The two brothers taught chemistry, mathematics, philosophy, and physics to themselves. Georg studied at the Erlangen Gymnasium from the age of 11-15. However, both he and his brother were too smart for school. In 1805, at the age of 15, he enrolled into the University of Erlangen. However, he was more involved in extracurricular activities, and when his father noticed this, he sent him to Switzerland in 1806. He started working as a mathematics teacher at a Gottstadt bei Nydau school. He took advice from his teacher, Christian von Langsdorf, and started reading the works of Lacroix, Laplace, and Euler. He also left his teaching position and became a private tutor in 1809. He studied mathematics for two years, and in 1811, he went back to the University of Erlangen.

Who was Georg Ohm's partner?

It's not known if Georg Ohm was married or not. There is no record of Georg Ohm having a wife or children.

Best Known For…

Georg Ohm learned much better by himself than from his formal education. He earned his doctorate degree by studying on his own on October 25, 1811, from the University of Erlangen, at the age of 22 years old. His teaching career began as soon as he joined the university as a mathematics lecturer. However, he only stayed there for three months, as he couldn't see any opportunity to grow. He was financially struggling, and the salary as a teacher was not enough to help his situation. He next accepted a job that the Bavarian government offered him in 1813 as a mathematics and physics teacher in Bamberg. However, he wasn't fully satisfied with this job either, so he started writing an elementary textbook on geometry. The school he was teaching at closed in 1816, and he was transferred to another school in Bamberg as a mathematics teacher.

In 1817, he joined the Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne as a mathematics and physics teacher, and it was better than any other school he had taught at, which even included a well-equipped laboratory. However, he continued his private studies as he kept learning Biot, Legendre, French mathematics, Fourier, Poisson, Laplace, Fresnel, and Lagrange. At the same time, as he learned about the discovery of electromagnetism by Oersted in 1820, he started experimenting with his hypothesis in the school physics laboratory. This helped him realize that he would only ever be satisfied with research work.

He submitted his first research paper in 1825 based on some experimental evidence from his trials and tests. It discussed the electromagnetic force being a force that is produced by a wire decreasing as the length of the wire increases. The next year, he submitted two more papers where he gave the mathematical description of the process of conduction, in particular electrical circuits, which he found based on the study of heat conduction by Fourier. His second paper was significant as he proposed laws in it that explained many results of the works on galvanic electricity by others. It was also the stepping-stone for Ohm's Law to be recognized. He published the famous book 'The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically' or 'Die Galvanische Kette, Mathematisch Bearbeitet' in 1827. According to his theory in the book, he described that communication of electricity happened between 'contiguous particles'.

In 1826, the Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne gave him a year off with half pay for his research work, and he returned in 1827. He spent his off-year in Berlin and hoped that his publication would give him a better job at a university, but that didn't occur, so he returned to the Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne. The sad reality was that even though Ohm's work was phenomenal, it didn't receive the deserved enthusiasm that it merited. That's why he decided leave his job and move to Berlin as a temporary mathematics teacher in Berlin in 1828. He got his desired title in 1833 when he joined the Polytechnic School of Nürnberg as a professor, but it still didn't satisfy him.

What awards did Georg Ohm win?

Georg Ohm's work wasn't accepted for many years. His work was rather rejected, but in 1842, he was finally recognized for his talent, and the Royal Society even gave him the Copley Medal award.

Georg Ohm's Hobbies And Interests

Georg Ohm had a passion and love for physics and mathematics. During his time at the University of Erlangen, he loved indulging in extracurricular activities, like playing billiards, ice skating, and dancing.

When scientists were deciding on terminology in Ohm's Law, they honored Georg Ohm by adopting his name. That's why we all recognize the SI unit of resistance as 'ohm'.

He not only won an award from the Royal Society, he also became a foreign member there. He also became a full member of the Bavarian Academy in 1845. And he became a curator in Munich for the physics cabinet of the Bavarian Academy. He was designated for the physics chair at the University of Munich in 1852, which he had wanted for a long time.

Georg Ohm died on July 6, 1854 in Munich, but the reason for his death is not known. He was buried in the Alter Südfriedhof.

We would love your help! If you have a photo of Georg Ohm, either of them alone or a selfie that you would be happy to share, please send it to [email protected].

If you have knowledge or information that you think would help us improve this article, please contact us.