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Dictionary definition: ampère
- Article from:
- A New Dictionary of Eponyms
- Author:
Copyright© A New Dictionary of Eponyms 1997, originally published by Oxford University Press 1997. (Hide copyright information)
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ampère, amp, Ampère's law
Would you believe that a person so traumatized that he could not speak or read for more than a year went on to become a distinguished scientist, so distinguished that he gave his name to the English language? In every dictionary can be found the word ampere: a unit of electric current equal to the steady current produced by one volt acting through a resistance of one ohm.
André Marie Ampère (1775–1836), a French scientist, lived so tragic a life as to make one wonder how his mind could have retained its brilliance. The tragedy that rendered him incapable of speaking at age eighteen was the execution of his father by guillotine during ...