Ampère’s motor: Its history and the controversies surrounding its working mechanism

Abstract

In 1822 Ampère created a new kind of motor when he succeeded in spinning a cylindrical magnet around its axis by connecting it to a battery generating a steady current. Nowadays, it is easy to present such a motor in the classroom utilizing a neodymium magnet, a D battery, a steel nail, and a short piece of copper wire. Although it is very simple to observe the rotation, the explanation of this effect is still under dispute. This work presents the history of this motor including the controversy between Ampère and Faraday, as well as the modern explanation based on the field concept. We emphasize the positive outcomes to be gained in the classroom by presenting this device to students. V

Current Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, 2014

“…MAYORAL DE LUCAS, Juan Vicente. "Hacia una reinterpretación de la ciencia normal: Kuhn y la física de su tiempo (1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951). de Paris et de Greenwich (1783.…”

Numerical investigation of the DC electric motor

“…There are several articles describing and investigating the use of the electric motor as a teaching resource in the classroom, but from an experimental perspective [5][6][7]. On the other hand there is a lot of literature about more conceptually complicated motors and dynamos, like Ampere's homopolar motor [8,9], Faraday's dynamo [10], induction motor [11][12][13], etc.…”

Unipolar motor and angular momentum conservation law

“…A large number of different designs of the unipolar electric motor are known [4][5][6][7][8][9]. These motors are similar to the described apparatus.…”