Ohms Law was Initially Rejected by Settled Science
How Ohm's Law Was Hated, Ignored, and Ultimately Vindicated
For most of us, Ohm's Law is a simple, foundational rule of electricity learned in high school science. Represented by the elegant equation V=IR, it describes the predictable relationship between voltage, current, and resistance. It feels as fundamental and unshakeable as any law of nature, a straightforward fact of the physical world.
But behind this simple formula lies a dramatic story of intellectual persecution, professional ruin, and eventual vindication. Georg Ohm, the German physicist who formulated the law, did not receive accolades for his discovery. Instead, his work was reviled, his methods were declared heretical, and he was fired for daring to describe nature with mathematical precision.
This article reveals the three most surprising takeaways from the controversial history of Ohm's Law—a journey that saw it transform from a despised theory to a cornerstone of electrical science, and finally, to a powerful model whose own limits tell a deeper story about the nature of scientific truth.
Takeaway 1: It Wasn’t Just Doubted—It Was Despised (and Got Him Fired)
In the 1820s, the intellectual climate in Germany was deeply hostile to Georg Ohm's methods. The academic landscape was dominated by a philosophical tradition that distrusted a purely mathematical and experimental approach to physics. To the establishment, the "hard work of experimenter and exact mathematical analysis were not honored; they seemed superfluous and harmful in the study of nature.”
This worldview held that scientific truth should be deduced from abstract principles, not derived from messy, hands-on experiments. As one contemporary account explained, the prevailing belief was that:
...the truth in science should be learned theoretically, whereas experience could not (and even should not!) be taken into account.
This disdain was weaponized against Ohm. His opponents, buttressed by flawed but high-profile experiments from the celebrated French scientist André-Marie Ampère—which had incorrectly suggested that current was independent of voltage—had what they believed was empirical proof to justify their philosophical attacks. Ohm's meticulous work was personally and dismissively critiqued.
Ohm’s critics (including top-ranking) his works smelled rather of sweat than of “supreme harmony”.
This philosophical opposition was personified by Georg Friedrich Pohl, a physicist supported by the philosopher Hegel. Pohl's campaign against Ohm was a potent mix of philosophical dogma, professional jealousy, and direct conflict of interest, as he had just published his own competing work on electrical circuits. Pohl aggressively attacked Ohm's findings, calling them "an unmistakable failure" and a "web of naked fancies." He then convinced the Minister of Education that Ohm's mathematical approach was itself a heresy.
The ultimate consequence came in 1828. Believing that "a physicist who professed such heresies was unworthy to teach science" and that the "use of mathematics in physics was unacceptable," the Minister issued a personal order that Georg Ohm be fired from his teaching position. This was not a simple firing; it was the state itself enforcing philosophical dogma over a fundamental law of nature.
Takeaway 2: He Was Exiled at Home, but Vindicated Abroad
After being forced to resign, Ohm endured years of professional struggle and what he later called "disheartening treatment." His vindication would not come from his home country, but from a winding, transnational scientific effort that valued empirical evidence over philosophical dogma.
The law's path to acceptance didn't begin in a prestigious European university, but in the workshops of tinkerers and inventors. It started when Moritz Jacobi, a Russian-German architect, used Ohm's 1827 book to build the world's first practical electric motor. Jacobi's paper on the motor, which heavily promoted Ohm's Law as its theoretical foundation, was then translated into English not by the Royal Society, but by William Sturgeon—an English shoemaker and inventor—for his fringe magazine, The Annals of Electricity. It was in this publication that Charles Wheatstone, a pioneering English engineer, discovered Ohm's work and became one of its greatest champions.
While this grassroots adoption was spreading, the first crucial academic confirmation came from France. Between 1831 and 1837, physicist Claude Pouillet used newly developed, far more accurate galvanometers to independently verify Ohm's results. This technological advancement in instrumentation provided the definitive proof that had eluded earlier researchers. The decisive moment, however, arrived in 1841 when England's prestigious Royal Society awarded Ohm the Copley Medal, one of the highest scientific honors in the world. This international recognition finally forced German institutions to acknowledge his discovery. The personal impact of this validation on Ohm was profound.
...their support gave him the courage, “which had previously been softened by disheartening treatment, to renewed efforts in the field of science”.
Despite this triumph, the full recognition he sought in his homeland came tragically late. Ohm only achieved his lifelong ambition of being appointed to a university professorship at the University of Munich in 1852, just two years before his death.
Takeaway 3: Today, We Know Ohm’s "Law" Isn't Really a Law at All
While Ohm’s Law is a foundational principle of classical electronics, modern physics understands it not as a universal, inviolable law of nature, but as a powerful and highly accurate linear approximation. Its predictive power is immense, but it holds true only under specific conditions and for certain materials. This modern understanding represents a second, more sophisticated kind of "rejection"—one born not from philosophical dogma, but from a more complete scientific knowledge of the physical world.
The "law" breaks down under several key conditions, particularly in the realm of modern materials and quantum physics.
Non-Ohmic Materials: The law does not apply to many materials that are essential to modern technology. Semiconductors, which form the basis of all digital electronics like diodes and transistors, are fundamentally non-ohmic. In these materials, the relationship between voltage and current is non-linear.
Temperature Changes: Ohm's Law assumes that a material's resistance is constant. However, as current flows through most conductors, they heat up. This temperature increase changes their resistance, which in turn alters the current. Since resistance is not truly constant, the strict proportionality of the law is violated.
Superconductivity: The most dramatic failure of the law occurs in superconductors. Below a certain critical temperature, these materials exhibit zero electrical resistance. In this state, a current can flow without any voltage applied, a quantum mechanical effect that completely defies the classical V=IR relationship.
Conclusion: A Law Forged in Controversy
Georg Ohm's story is a powerful testament to the triumph of quantitative science over institutional dogma. His incredible journey took his discovery from a reviled theory that cost him his career, to a cornerstone of electrical engineering, and finally to its modern status as a well-understood model with clearly defined limits.
His struggle highlights that even the most fundamental concepts in our textbooks can have histories filled with conflict, rejection, and the slow, difficult work of acceptance. It makes you wonder: which scientific 'laws' that we take for granted today might have their own surprising stories of struggle and hidden limits?