Georg Ohm

Georg Ohm was a German Physicist known for the discovery of Ohm's Law, which is found in his book exploring his full theory of electricity, published in 1827. Ohm was born in 1787 in Erlangen, Germany. His parents did not receive any form of education, yet Ohm's father was able to teach him using the knowledge he gain from teaching himself.  Ohm attended the University of Erlangen, and wrote a textbook of elementary geometry to prove his worth while teaching mathematics in German schools. While he was a teacher, Ohm began his experiments in the school physics laboratory; soon after he learned of the discovery of electromagnetism in 1820.

Statue of Georg Ohm in Munich, Germany

Ohm provided results from his electromagnetic experimentation and proposed laws based on galvanic electricity in two important papers in 1826. Using the results of his experimentation,  Ohm discovered the relationship between the resistance, current, and voltage in an electric current. He published what is known as Ohm’s Law in his most famous book in 1827. Ohm’s law is I=V/R. This equation, simply stated, says that “the amount of steady current through a material is directly proportional to the voltage across the material divided by the electrical resistance of the material” (Source: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blohm.htm). This equation is fundamental for the understanding of electric circuits.