Boyle's Law: Verification

Level: introductory

Reference: Robert Boyle, A Defence of the Doctrine Touching the Spring And Weight of the Air (1662)

Notes: Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was a key figure in Englightenment science and one of its most prominent practitioners of experimental natural philosophy. He was an important early member of the Royal Society in England, and he conducted significant research in the disciplines we now call chemistry and physics.

Using Boyle and the gas law that bears his name in historically based science pedagogy is not a new idea. For example, see:

• James Bryant Conant, Robert Boyle's experiments in pneumatics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1950), later part of the collection James Bryant Conant, Ed., Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science, vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1957)
• Frank Fazio, "Using Robert Boyle's Original Data in the Physics and Chemistry Classrooms," Journal of College Science Teaching 21, 363-365 (1992) and references therein.

To download worked spreadsheet, go to:
http://web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/classicalcs/boyleverifyans.xls

Back to the Classic Calculations home page

Back to the top of the Classic Chemistry site