Ampere, Andre Marie
Ampere, Andre Marie (1775-1836), a French mathematician and physicist, noted for his work in electromagnetism. He discovered that electric currents in two wires exert magnetic forces on each othertwo parallel currents flowing in the same direction attract each other, while two parallel currents flowing in opposite directions repel each other. As a result of experiments conducted between 1820 and 1825, Ampere developed a mathematical formula (now known as Ampere's Law) for calculating the magnetic force caused by an electric current. The ampere, a unit of electric current, was named for him. Ampere also wrote several books on metaphysics. Ampere became a professor of mathematics at the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, in 1809 and, later, a professor of physics at the College de France.