Heinrich Lenz

Heinrich Lenz, born on February 12, 1804 was a Russian physicist and is mostly remembered for his studies of electromagnetism. At the beginning of the nineteenth century scientists began understanding electricity and magnetism, but not the relationships between the two. Lenz formulated Lenz's Law to study the relationship between the two. Lenz observed that when a electrical current is generated by a changing magnetic field, the magnetic field generated by that electrical current opposes the magnetic field that generated the current. In addition to Lenz's Law, Lenz also discovered Joule's Law and worked on electroplating. Lenz’s first initial, is attached to physics nomenclature. The symbol L was chosen to represent "Inductance" in honor of his work in electromagnetism. Lenz was also influential as a pioneer of rigorous methodology in his experiments which has provided a model for future physicists.

He was born in Dorpat, Estonia (now known as Tartu, in Estonia). and studied theology before switching to Physics and Chemistry at the University of Dorpat. After graduation, Lenz accompanied Otto von Kotzebue on a worldwide voyage He was elected to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, where he had presented scientific papers. He was also the dean at St. Petersburg University from 1840 to 1863, where he was appointed the university's rector, a position he held until his death. After suffering a stroke, Lenz died in 1865 while in Rome.

Lenz's Law

Lenz's law obeys both the law of conservation of energy and Newton's second law of motion. The law states that when an emf is generated due to change in magnetic flux, the polarity of the induced emf produces a current that's magnetic field opposes the change which produces it.

[math]\displaystyle{ \varepsilon=- {\partial \phi \over \partial t} }[/math]

Where,

[math]\displaystyle{ \varepsilon }[/math] is the induced emf and [math]\displaystyle{ \phi }[/math] is the magnetic flux

Further Reading

http://www.electricaleasy.com/2014/02/faradays-law-and-lenzs-law-of.html

http://www.physicshandbook.com/laws/lenzlaw.htm

References

http://deadscientistoftheweek.blogspot.com/2013/02/heinrich-lenz.html

Wikipedia Page

Maglab Page

http://canov.jergym.cz/objevite/objev4/lena.htm