Portrait of Hans Christian Ørsted
. Portrait by Christian Albrecht Jensen, 1842; public-domain reproduction hosted by Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851) was a Danish physicist and chemist, best known for his discovery of electromagnetism. In 1820, Ørsted discovered that an electric current flowing through a wire could deflect a nearby compass needle, demonstrating the relationship between electrical current and magnetic fields. This pivotal discovery laid the groundwork for the field of electromagnetism and influenced later scientists, including André-Marie Ampère and James Clerk Maxwell.