Where my little sister would be without a fan to cool her oven-like bedroom? Only God knows. Further proof that magnets are indeed the key to modern living. Magnets enable the conversion of electric energy into mechanical energy. As Christian Oersted and Andre-Marie Ampere discovered, there is a fundamental connection between magnetism and electricity. They discovered, that a current-carrying wire physically moves in the presence of a permanent magnet when there is a varying magnetic field (in this case the moving electrons of the current). This basic configuration of a magnet and current carrying wire is a rudimentary motor and that is the essentials of the essential fan.