Apoorva Arora
Last Activity: 10 Years ago
TheSeebeck effectis the conversion oftemperaturedifferences directly intoelectricityand is named after theBaltic GermanphysicistThomas Johann Seebeck, who, in 1821, discovered that a compass needle would be deflected by a closed loop formed by two different metals joined in two places, with a temperature difference between the junctions. This was because the metals responded to the temperature difference in different ways, creating a current loop and amagnetic field. Seebeck did not recognize there was an electric current involved, so he called the phenomenon the thermomagnetic effect. Danish physicistHans Christian Ørstedrectified the mistake and coined the term "thermoelectricity".