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Feb 15, 1564
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei is born. -
Otto von Guericke
Otto von Guericke is born. -
Evangelista Torricelli
Evangelista Torricelli is born. -
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal is born. -
Christiaan Huygens
Christiaan Huygens is born. -
Galileo's Contribution
He developed the suction pump. He used air to draw underground water up a pump, similiar to how a syringe draws water. He was perplexed as to why there was a limit to the height water could be raised. He was 66 years old when he invented this. -
Torricelli's Contribution
He developed the first barometer. He continued Galileo's work by determining that the limit to the height Galileo's pump could draw water was due to atmospheric pressure. He invented a closed-end tube filled with mercury that, in turn, was suspended in a hollow dish filed with liquid mercury. The height of the column of mercury in the tube, which was measured in mmHg, was equal to the atmospheric pressure acting on the mercury in the dish. He was 35 when he invented the barometer. -
Guericke's Contributation
He made a pump that could creat a vacuum so strong tha a team of 16 horses could not pull two metal hemisperes apart. He reasoned that the metal hemispheres were held together by the mechanical force of the atmospheric pressure, rather than the vacuum. This experiment went on for two years (until 1645). He was 41 years old when it started. -
Pascal's Contribution
He carried a mercury barometer like Torricello's from the base to the top of the French mountain, Puy de Dome. He discovered that the atmospheric pressure changed as he moved up and down the moutain. He was 25.
The unit Pascal was named after him because of this experiment. -
Huygens' Contribution
He invented the manometer to measure the elastic forces in gases. He was 32 years old. -
John Dalton
John Dalton is born. -
Amadeo Avogadro
Amadeo Avogadro is born. -
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac is born. -
Dalton's Contribution
He stated that in a mixture of gases, the total pressure is equal to the sum of the pressure of each gas, as if it were in a container alone. The pressure exerted by each gas is called its partial pressure. This is called Dalton's law. Dalton was 35 when his law was publushed. -
Gay-Lussac's Contribution
He observed the volume of comnining gases. His law states that the volumes of gases that interact to give a gaseous product are in the ratio of small whole numbers to each other and that each bears a similar relation to the volume of the product. He made the observation when he was 30 years old.
For example, two volumes of hydrogen combined with one volume of oxygen would form to become two volumes of water. -
Avogadro's Contribution
He suggested, from Gay-Lussac's experiment, which was performed three years earlier, that the pressure in a container is directly proportional to the number of particles in that container. This is known as Avogadro's Hypothesis. This hypothesis can be illustrated by blowing up a balloon, ball or tire: the more air that is added the larger the container becomes. This is due to increased pressure. Avogadro wrote his hypothesis when we was 35.