André-marie ampere André-Marie Ampere was a French physicist, philosopher, and mathematician. One of his most important discoveries was the electron.

Ampère (1775-1836) was the son of a successful businessman and local government official in Polemieux-auMont-d'Or, a small community near Lyon, France. His father taught him Latin and encouraged Ampère to follow his passion for mathematics. Some historians write that the young Ampère was a math prodigy at a very early age.

Even without any formal education Ampère began a career as a science teacher. It was there that he first conducted important research and experiments into the nature of electrical and magnetic forces.

In the early 1820s, after learning about the electromagnetism experiments of Hans Christian Oersted and he decided to study the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Ampere discovered that a common particle was producing both electricity and magnetism. He called this particle the “electrodynamic molecule”.

Many years later, other scientists renamed the particle that Ampere had discovered: they called it ELECTRON.

Unit 5. Page 22: How was electromagnetism discovered?