Physicist · 1791 – 1867

Michael Faraday

Little-Known Facts

  • Faraday began as a bookbinder's apprentice and educated himself by reading the volumes he bound.
  • He declined a knighthood and twice refused the presidency of the Royal Society.

Myths & Misconceptions

Was Faraday a trained mathematician?

No. He had little formal mathematics and expressed his ideas in physical and geometric terms, which Maxwell later cast into equations.