Ohm, Georg Simon

Ohm, Georg Simon (gā`ôrkh zē`môn ōm), 1787–1854, German physicist. He was professor at Munich from 1852. His study of electric current led to his formulation of the law now known as Ohm's law. The unit of electrical resistance (see ohm) was named for him. He also made studies in acoustics and in crystal interference. His writings include The Galvanic Current Investigated Mathematically (1827, tr. 1891).

---

Ohm, Georg Simon

Ohm, detail of a lithograph

(credit: Historia-Photo)

(born March 16, 1789, Erlangen, Bavaria—died July 6, 1854, Munich) German physicist. While teaching mathematics at the Jesuits' College in Cologne (1817–27), he discovered that the flow of electric current through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference, or voltage, and inversely proportional to the resistance. He resigned when his theory (Ohm's law) was coldly received. His theory soon came to be widely recognized, and he subsequently taught in Nürnberg (1833–49) and Munich (1849–54). The physical unit measuring electrical resistance was named for him.

---

Ohm, Georg Simon - Georg Simon Ohm

---

Ohm, Georg Simon 

Born Mar. 16, 1789, in Erlangen; died July 7, 1854, in Munich. German physicist.

Ohm studied at the University of Erlangen in 1805–06 and then worked as a teacher in Gottstadt, Switzerland, from 1806 to 1809. He prepared independently and defended his doctoral thesis at Erlangen in 1811. He taught at Bamberg (1813–17), Cologne (1817–28), and Berlin (1828–33). In 1833 he became director of the Polytechnic School in Nuremberg, and in 1849 a professor at the University of Munich.

Ohm’s main works were on electricity, optics, crystal optics, and acoustics. In 1826, by carrying out a series of precise experiments, he established the fundamental law of electrical circuits (Ohm’s law) and in 1827 provided a theoretical foundation for it. Beginning in 1830 he devoted his time to acoustics. In 1843 he demonstrated that the simplest auditory perception is evoked only by harmonic vibrations into which the ear breaks down complex sounds (called the acoustic law of Ohm). In 1881 the name “ohm” was given to the unit of electric resistance (Ω). Ohm was a member of the Royal Society of London (1842).

WORKS

Grundzüge der Physik. Nuremberg, 1854.
Gesammelte Abhandlungen. Leipzig, 1892.

REFERENCE

Füchtbauer, H. von. Georg Simon Ohm. Berlin, 1939.
Gerlach, W. Georg Simon Ohm—Gedächtnis-Rede zur Feier seines 150. Geburtstages. Munich, 1939.

I. D. ROZHANSKII