Charles Augustin de Coulomb (June 14, 1736 – August 23, 1806) was a French physicist, born in Angoulême, France. Coulomb is distinguished in the history of mechanics and of electricity and magnetism. Coulomb explained the laws of attraction and repulsion between electric charges and magnetic poles, although he did not find any relationship between the two phenomena. He thought that the attraction and repulsion were due to different kinds of fluids. The SI unit of charge, the coulomb, and Coulomb's law are named after him.