The Unification of Electricity and Magnetism

For centuries, electricity (lightning) and magnetism (compasses) were viewed as completely separate.

But in the 1800s, experiments by Hans Christian Orsted and Michael Faraday proved they physically

interact: electric currents move magnets, and moving magnets create electricity. James Clerk Maxwell

then unified these observations mathematically into a single framework: Electromagnetism. He showed they are

two aspects of the same force and discovered that light itself is simply an electromagnetic wave.

This breakthrough launched the modern age, enabling everything from radio to Einstein’s

relativity.