Definition

1. Proper noun:
   • A French physicist: Charles Augustin de Coulomb was an 18th-century French scientist renowned for his foundational work in electromagnetism.
   • The namesake of a physical law and unit: He is best known for formulating Coulomb's Law, which describes the electrostatic force between charged particles. The SI unit of electric charge, the coulomb (C), is named in his honor.

Usage Examples

• Proper noun:
  • The experiments conducted by Charles Augustin de Coulomb were pivotal in understanding electric force.
  • We studied the life and work of Charles Augustin de Coulomb in physics class.

Advanced Usage

• The name is often used metonymically to refer to his contributions or the units/laws named after him.
  • The value was measured in coulombs, named for Charles Augustin de Coulomb.
  • The principle, first established by Charles Augustin de Coulomb, underpins much of electrostatics.

Variants and Related Words

• Coulomb (n): The derived SI unit of electric charge.
  • One coulomb is equivalent to the charge transported by a constant current of one ampere in one second.
• Coulomb's Law (n): The physical law stating that the force between two point charges is proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
  • Coulomb's Law is analogous to Newton's law of universal gravitation in its inverse-square formulation.

Synonyms

• Physicist: A scientist who studies physics.
• Electromagnetism pioneer: A person who made fundamental early discoveries in electromagnetism.

Related Phrases

• While there are no phrasal verbs, his name is central to common scientific phrases:
  • "Coulomb interaction": The force between charged particles.
  • "Coulomb barrier": The electrostatic barrier that must be overcome for nuclear fusion to occur.

Related Idioms

• There are no common idioms featuring his full name. However, his last name appears in technical expressions:
  • "Per coulomb": A phrase used in defining electric potential (volts = joules per coulomb).

Noun

1. French physicist famous for his discoveries in the field of electricity and magnetism; formulated Coulomb's Law (1736-1806)