Michael Faraday
Species	Human
First appearance	Mario's Time Machine (1993)

“Big machines? What an imagination! As big as your magnetic personality, Mario! I’m not sure what its use will be yet, but I’ll wager the government will some day tax it!”

—Michael Faraday,Mario's Time Machine (PC)

Michael Faraday (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) in theSuper Mario franchise is an English scientist who studied into the fields of physics and chemistry, notably identifyingbenzene. He was also this in real life, and was born to a poor blacksmith and became the apprentice of abookbinder at a young age. He became interested in science and attended the lectures ofHumphry Davy at a young age. He was self-educated and submitted a bunch of the notes he took to Davy, and he soon became Davy's apprentice. Under him, Faraday became an excellent scientist, becoming a lecturer in his own right that made scientific lectures interesting for the average person and especially children, and most notably discovering the link between magnetic fields and electricity (later calledFaraday's law of induction).

Michael Faraday appears only inMario's Time Machine. Here,Bowser traveled to 1831 to steal theMagnet that Faraday used for his experiments, preventing him from completing his discoveries. When Mario time-travels back to the same year, he finds Michael Faraday in his laboratory. Since Mario does not know that the Magnet belongs to Faraday, if he talks to Faraday regardless, he asks if he has discovered Faraday, and Faraday replies that he has. Faraday says that he is on the verge of an "electrifying" discovery, and he does not want Mario to disturb him. Mario then asks various nearby people, including Faraday's wife,Sarah Barnard, about Faraday and the Magnet. After absolute certainty that the Magnet belongs to Faraday, Mario returns to the laboratory and tells Faraday that he has found his Magnet. Faraday excitedly takes the Magnet and immediately puts it to use in his experiment. Faraday explains that his experiment involves generating a current of electricity when he passes the Magnet through a coil of wire. Mario remarks that Faraday is now able to power big machines, and Faraday is surprised by Mario's audacious comments. Faraday is unsure what practical applications his findings may have, but he is sure that the government plans to tax it.

There are many historical discrepancies between the Michael Faraday of theSuper Mario franchise and in real life:

• A young boy who says that Michael Faraday's first lecture within theRoyal Institution Christmas Lectures wasThe Chemical History of a Candle. However, not only did he give several lectures before this one, he gave it in 1848.^[1] He also talks about howCharles Dickens wrote about Faraday's lectures, which he only did after Faraday had presentedThe Chemical History of a Candle.^[2]
• Charles-Gaspard de la Rive discusses a lecture in which Faraday demonstrates an electromagnet by throwing a shovel, a pair of tongs, and a poker at it. Not only did this lecture take place in 1856, but he threw acoal scuttle and not a shovel.^[3]
• Sarah Barnard characterizes Faraday's former mentor,Humphry Davy, as someone who was utterly jealous of Faraday's success and generally rude towards him, but that view is careless, ignoring much of the relationship between Davy and Faraday.^[4][5] She also remarks that Faraday noted that the date with the most happiness to him was the day that the two of them married. While this is true, he only noted so in 1847.^[6]
• Several characters are waiting for Faraday's upcoming lecture, but he did not give a Christmas Lecture in 1831.^[1]
• The history pages state that Faraday is the only scientist to have both anSI unit and aphysical constant named after them, despite the real-lifeIsaac Newton andCharles-Augustin de Coulomb sharing the honor.^[7][8]

References

• Humans
• Historical figures
• Scientists
• Married characters
• Mario's Time Machine characters