Johann Wolfgang Ohm
Georg Simon Ohm
8 min read
German physicist and mathematician (1789-1854), Georg Ohm discovered the fundamental law relating voltage, current, and resistance in an electrical circuit. His work, initially ignored, became a cornerstone of modern electrical engineering.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born on March 16, 1789, in Erlangen, Bavaria
- Published Ohm's law in 1827 in his work 'Die galvanische Kette'
- The unit of electrical resistance, the ohm (Ω), is named in his honor
- Received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society in 1841, a belated recognition of his work
- Died on July 6, 1854, in Munich
Works & Achievements
Ohm's masterwork, in which he gives a mathematical formulation of the law that bears his name: U = R × I. Initially ignored in Germany, it was recognized in England and France as a foundational contribution to electrical engineering.
The first paper in which Ohm experimentally establishes the proportionality between electromotive force and current intensity, published in the Annalen der Physik. This article foreshadows and anticipates his major 1827 treatise.
A physics textbook written for teaching purposes, published the very year of his death. It reflects the central role Ohm gave throughout his life to passing on scientific knowledge to his students.
In the second half of his career, Ohm turned his attention to auditory perception and formulated an acoustic law stating that the human ear decomposes complex sounds into pure tones. This work influenced Helmholtz in his research on sound perception.
Anecdotes
When Georg Ohm published his law in 1827 in *Die galvanische Kette*, the German scientific community received it with contempt. The Prussian Minister of Education publicly declared that anyone who had produced such work “was not worthy of teaching science.” Humiliated, Ohm was forced to resign from his position at the Cologne gymnasium.
Ohm had grown up in a modest family in Erlangen: his father Johann Wolfgang was a locksmith, but a passionate autodidact who had taught himself mathematics and philosophy. He taught Georg physics and mathematics with exceptional rigor, laying the foundations for a scientific vocation in a home with no academic resources.
After the bitter failure of his publication in Germany, Ohm lived for more than ten years in relative poverty, moving from one poorly paid teaching position to another. It was the Royal Society of London that rehabilitated him by awarding him the Copley Medal in 1841 — Britain’s highest scientific distinction — finally recognizing the revolutionary significance of his work on electric current.
Ohm built his first experiments using metal wires of varying lengths and cross-sections, with a thermoelectric cell to stabilize the voltage — an ingenious solution at a time when voltaic cells were still highly unreliable. It was thanks to this rigorous method that he was able to express mathematically the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance.
Ohm died in Munich in July 1854, at the age of 65, barely five years after finally obtaining a professorship at the University of Munich. He never knew his name would be immortalized: the international unit of electrical resistance, the ohm (Ω), was officially adopted in his honor at the International Electrical Congress in Paris in 1881.
Primary Sources
Der Widerstand, den ein Leiter dem Strome entgegensetzt, ist dem Querschnitte desselben direct und der Länge umgekehrt proportional. — The resistance a conductor opposes to current is directly proportional to its length and inversely proportional to its cross-sectional area.
In this paper, Ohm states for the first time the proportionality between electromotive force and current intensity in a metallic conductor, establishing the fundamental relation U = R × I.
I am discouraged by the reception of my work in Germany. I am treated as though I had committed a fault in seeking to apply mathematics to electrical physics.
Awarded to Georg Simon Ohm for his researches into the laws of the electric circuit, published in his treatise 'Die galvanische Kette', which has contributed essentially to the progress of electrical science.
Key Places
Birthplace of Georg Ohm, born on March 16, 1789. His father worked there as a locksmith while teaching himself mathematics, passing on to Georg an early passion for the sciences.
Ohm taught at the Gymnasium Jesuiten from 1817 onwards. It was here that he carried out the bulk of his experimental research, and from where he was forced to resign in 1828 following the humiliating rejection of his work.
Ohm secured a professorship there in 1833, after years of wandering and financial hardship. This period marked the beginning of his gradual rehabilitation within the German-speaking academic world.
Ohm was appointed full professor there in 1849, the ultimate crowning achievement of his career. He died on July 6, 1854; his grave lies in the Westfriedhof, Munich's western cemetery.
Ohm submitted his first papers to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. It was in this city that his work was first presented to the German scientific community, before being largely ignored.
