Who among the following played a crucial role in understanding electromagnetism when he accidentally discovered that a compass needle got deflected when an electric current passed through a metallic wire placed nearby?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Hans Christian Oerested
In 1820 the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted noticed during a lecture demonstration that a compass needle placed near a current-carrying wire was deflected. It was the first evidence that an electric current produces a magnetic field, and it opened the study of electromagnetism.
Wohler synthesised urea, Joule gave the law of heating by a current, and Einstein belongs to a much later era of physics.