It is
this force that links atoms and molecules to form ordinary solid bodies. Thus,
if your elbow doesn't sink into the wood of your desk while you are writing, it
is because the electrons in the atoms of your desk and of your elbow push against
each other by means of electromagnetic interaction.
The
relationship between electricity and magnetism was discovered in 1820 by Christian
Oersted (Denmark) in an experiment during which he noticed that a magnetic
needle was deflected by an electric current. Andre Marie Ampere (France) later
generalized these observations, but it was James Clerk Maxwell (Great Britain)
who, in 1864, formulated the general laws of electromagnetism and showed that
light was nothing but an electromagnetic wave.
Since
the 1930s a number of physicists such as P.A.M. Dirac (Great Britain) and
Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger (both U.S.) have developed the modem
theory of electromagnetic interaction between electrons (with the exchange of
photons). (‘Inventions and Discoveries’)
