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magnetism and electricity, sadly he didn’t complete it. His research of static electricity using amber and jet
only demonstrated that objects with electrical charges can work like magnets attracting small pieces of paper
and stuff. It is a French guy named du Fay that discovered that there are actually two electrical charges,
positive and negative.
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He also questioned the traditional astronomical beliefs. Though a Copernican, he didn’t express in his
quintessential beliefs whether the earth is at the centre of the universe or in orbit around the sun. However,
he believed that stars are not equidistant from the earth but have their own earth-like planets orbiting around
them. The earth itself is like a giant magnet, which is also why compasses always point north. They spin on
an axis that is aligned with the earth’s polarity. He even likened the polarity of the magnet to the polarity of
the earth and built an entire magnetic philosophy on this analogy. In his explanation, magnetism is the soul
of the earth. Thus a perfectly spherical lodestone, when aligned with the earth’s poles, would wobble all by
itself in 24 hours. Further, he also believed that the sun and other stars wobble just like the earth does around
a crystal core, and speculated that the moon might also be a magnet caused to orbit by its magnetic attraction
to the earth. This was perhaps the first proposal that a force might cause a heavenly orbit.
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His research method was revolutionary in that he used experiments rather than pure logic and reasoning like
the ancient Greek philosophers did. It was a new attitude towards scientific investigation. Until then,
scientific experiments were not in fashion. It was because of this scientific attitude, together with his
contribution to our knowledge of magnetism, that a unit of magneto motive force, also known as magnetic
potential, was named Gilbert in his honour. His approach of careful observation and experimentation rather
than the authoritative opinion or deductive philosophy of others had laid the very foundation for modern
science.
