Georg Simon Ohm was born on March 16, 1789 to Johann Wolfgang Ohm, a locksmith, and Maria Elizabeth Beck, the daughter of a tailor, in Erlangen, Bavaria.
Although his parents had not been formally educated, Ohm's father was a respected man who had educated himself to a high level and was able to give his son an excellent education through his own teachings. Unfortunately his mother died when he was only ten.
From early childhood, Georg was taught by his father who brought him to a high standard in mathematics, physics, chemistry and philosophy. Georg attended Erlangen Gymnasium from age eleven to fifteen where he received little in the area of scientific training, which sharply contrasted with the inspired instruction that he had received from his father.
In 1805, aged 15, Georg entered the University of Erlangen. Rather than concentrate on his studies he spent much time dancing, ice skating and playing billiards. His father, angry that his son was wasting the educational opportunity, sent Georg to Switzerland where, in September 1806, aged only 16, he took up a post as a mathematics teacher in a school in Gottstadt bei Nydau.
Georg was advised by Karl Christian von Langsdorf, who was a professor at the University of Erlangen, to read the works of Euler, Laplace and Lacroix. Rather reluctantly Ohm took this advice but he left his teaching post in Gottstadt bei Nydau in March 1809 to become a private tutor in Neuchâtel. For two years he carried out his duties as a tutor while he followed Langsdorf's advice and continued his private study of mathematics. Then in April 1811 he returned to the University of Erlangen.
His private studies had stood him in good stead for his receiving a doctorate from Erlangen on October 25, 1811 and immediately he joined the staff as a mathematics lecturer. After three semesters Ohm gave up his university post because of unpromising prospects and the low wage (has teachers pay always been a problem?). The Bavarian government offered him a post as a teacher of mathematics and physics at a poor quality school in Bamberg and he took up the post there in January 1813. Feeling unhappy with his job, Georg devoted to writing an elementary book on Geometry as a way to prove his true ability. The school was then closed down in February 1816. The Bavarian government sent him to an overcrowded school in Bamberg to help out with the mathematics teaching.
Georg sent the manuscript to King Wilhelm III of Prussia upon its completion. The King was satisfied with Georg's work and he offered Ohm a position at a Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne on September 11, 1817. Thanks to the school's reputation for science education, Ohm found himself required to teach physics as well as mathematics. Luckily, the physics lab was well-equipped, so Ohm devoted himself to experimenting on physics. Being the son of a locksmith, Georg had some practical experience with mechanical equipment.
In his first paper published in 1825, Ohm examines the decrease in the electromagnetic force produced by a wire as the length of the wire increased (voltage drop on a wire). The paper deduced mathematical relationships based purely on the experimental evidence that Ohm had tabulated.
In two important papers in 1826, Ohm gave a mathematical description of conduction in circuits modelled on Fourier's study of heat conduction. These papers continue Ohm's deduction of results from experimental evidence and, particularly in the second, he was able to propose laws which went a long way to explaining results of others working on galvanic electricity. The second paper certainly is the first step in a comprehensive theory which Ohm was able to give in his famous book published in the following year.
In 1827 Georg published a book in Berlin, Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet (The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically), in which he described what is now called 'Ohms Law', it was his complete theory of electricity.
The book begins with the mathematical background necessary for an understanding of the rest of the work. While his work greatly influenced the theory and applications of current electricity, it was coldly received at that time. It is interesting that Ohm presents his theory as one of contiguous action, a theory which opposed the concept of action at a distance.
Ohm believed that the communication of electricity occurred between "contiguous particles" which is the term Ohm himself uses. The paper is concerned with this idea, and in particular with illustrating the differences in scientific approach between Ohm and that of Fourier and Navier, two contemporary French physicists.
He became professor of experimental physics in the university of Munich in 1852 where he died 2 years later on July 6, 1854.