Level: introductory
Reference: Edme Mariotte on the nature of air (1676, 1679) as excerpted in William Francis Magie, A Source Book in Physics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1935), pp. 88-92.
Notes: Edme Mariotte (c. 1620-1684) was one of the first members of the French Academy of sciences. He carried out research in many areas of the field now known as physics. This exercise involves his observations on the relationship between the pressure and volume of gases, which is the work for which he is best known. Indeed, the law relating the pressure and volume of gases, known as Boyle's law in much of the English-speaking world, is known as Mariotte's law in much of continental Europe. Mariotte's discovery was independent of Boyle's and a few years later. As he put it, "air is condensed in proportion to the weight with which it is loaded."
Mariotte's length unit is often translated as "inch", for it was 1/12 of a pied or foot that was just a bit longer than the English foot. I deliberately called the unit by its French name so as not to mislead students into thinking it was the same as our inch. The conversion factor of 1 pc = 1.07 inches allows us to see that the atmospheric pressure Mariotte observed was a very normal 30. in. Hg.
Solutions: To download solutions, go to:
http://web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/classicalcs/mariotte.doc
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