Editing Gas laws (section)

== History ==
In 1643, the Italian physicist and mathematician, [[Evangelista Torricelli]], who for a few months had acted as [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo Galilei's]] secretary, conducted a celebrated experiment in Florence.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lagouge |first=Michel |title=History of Gas Laws |url=https://lagouge.ecole-alsacienne.org/14-15/cahier_texte_1S/Documents/Doc%20C4/History%20of%20Gas%20Laws.pdf}}</ref> He demonstrated that a column of mercury in an inverted tube can be supported by the pressure of air outside of the tube, with the creation of a small section of vacuum above the mercury.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-01-23 |title=Torricelli's barometric experiment |url=https://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/itineraries/multimedia/TorricellisBarometricExperiment.html#:~:text=Torricelli%20filled%20a%20glass%20tube,height%20of%20around%2076%20cm. |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=brunelleschi.imss.fi.it |language=EN}}</ref> This experiment essentially paved the way towards the invention of the barometer, as well as drawing the attention of [[Robert Boyle]], then a "skeptical" scientist working in England. Boyle was inspired by Torricelli's experiment to investigate how the elasticity of air responds to varying pressure, and he did this through a series of experiments with a setup reminiscent of that used by Torricelli.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Purdue University |title=Gas Laws |url=https://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch4/gaslaws3.html}}</ref> Boyle published his results in 1662.  

Later on, in 1676, the French physicist [[Edme Mariotte]], independently arrived at the same conclusions of Boyle, while also noting some dependency of air volume on temperature.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edme Mariotte {{!}} Experimental Physics, Pressure Law & Hydrostatics {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edme-Mariotte |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> However it took another century and a half for the development of thermometry and recognition of the absolute zero temperature scale, which eventually allowed the discovery of temperature-dependent gas laws.