Ampere,+Andre2

__**Young Andre**__ André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836), was a French physicist, natural philosopher, and mathematician who is best known for his important contributions to the study of electrodynamics. He invented the astatic needle, a critical component of the modern astatis galvanometer, and was the first to demonstrate that a magnetic field is generated when two parallel wires are charged with electricity. Born January 20, 1775, Ampère was the son of a successful businessman and local government official in a small community near Lyon, France. As a child Ampere spent a great deal of time reading in the library of his family home, and he voraciously consumed books of history, geography, literature, philosophy and the natural sciences. His father taught him Latin and encouraged Ampère to pursue his passion for mathematics. Some historians write that the young Ampère was a math prodigy at a very early age and that he used to work out long mathematical formulas, just for his own personal entertainment, using small pebbles or breadcrumbs to represent groups of numbers. Despite his celebrated accomplishments, Ampère led a rather tragic life. When Lyons was taken over by rebels during the French Revolution, his beloved father was a district judge. Because of his political affiliations, Ampère’s father was taken as a political prisoner and then publicly executed by guillotine, an event that severely scarred the young Ampère and led to a period of psychological depression. Later in life Ampère’s first wife met with an early death after a prolonged illness, and although he remarried, his second marriage was unhappy and unsuccessful. Ampère died June 10, 1836 in Marseilles, France, and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris. When Gustave Eiffel built his famous Eiffel Tower in Pairs in 1889, he included the names of 72 prominent French scientists on plaques around the first section at the base of the structure. The name of André-Marie Ampère is included in that distinguished memorial.

__**Education**__ Andre had no set education. He did not attend school, and everything he learned he taught himself.