.jpg)
The Complete History of Science
A podcast exploring the history of science from the beginning. We will cover all of the most important scientific discoveries from Archimedes to Newton to Einstein. The aim is to give a complete overview of how science evolved and how it shaped the modern world.
Follow me on BlueSky for updates:
https://bsky.app/profile/gethinrichards.bsky.social
YouTube:
https://youtube.com/@thecompletehistoryofscience
Music credit:Folk Round Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Photo credit: "L0015096EB" by Wellcome Library, London is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Image has been cropped.
The Complete History of Science
The Lodestone, the Compass and the Magnetic Earth
In this episode we trace the early development of magnetism and the compass—from ancient Chinese navigation to the groundbreaking insights of medieval and Renaissance Europe. The episode highlights the work of Peter Peregrinus, a 13th-century scholar whose detailed experiments with magnets laid the foundation for future magnetic science, and Robert Norman, who devised a method to reveal the mysterious “dip” of the magnetic needle. It also explores early efforts to understand magnetic declination, map its behavior, and investigate the nature of Earth’s magnetic forces. From the legends surrounding the compass’s invention to the precision of William Gilbert’s De Magnete, this episode examines how magnetism evolved from a mystical force into a measurable, mappable phenomenon—marking a crucial step on the path to modern science.
Contact: thecompletehistoryofscience@gmail.com
Twitter: @complete_sci
Music Credit: Folk Round Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License