Gay-Lussac’s 1801 experiments establishing the law of volumes for gases are brilliantly simple, and he described them with a level of detail that was new to physics writing. But he did not present his actual measurements or tell us how he analyzed them to conclude that between 0 to , a volume of any gas will expand by about 37.5%. We review his experiments and conclude that he measured initial and final volumes at slightly different pressures. By using the gas laws and his apparatus diagrams, we corrected his data so that they correspond to constant pressure. His corrected results give , the currently accepted value for nearly ideal gases. Aside from their intrinsic interest, our analyses can provide students intriguing applications of the gas laws and Pascal’s law and motivate them to consider Pascal’s paradox. We also note the influence of ballooning and of the French Revolution on Gay-Lussac.
REFERENCES
1.
Joseph Louis
Gay-Lussac
, “Sur le dilatation des gaz et des vapeurs
,” Annal. Chim.
43
(1
), 137
–175
(1802
).2.
L. J.
Gay-Lussac
, “Researches upon the rate of expansion of gases and vapors
,” in The Expansion of Gases by Heat
, edited by W. W.
Randall
(American
, New York
, 1902
), pp. 25
–49
. This is a translation from the original French in Ref. 1. A free download is available at ⟨http://books.google.com/books⟩.3.
A compact and authoritative biography of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850) is in
Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
(Charles Scribners & Sons
, Detroit
, 2008
), Vol. 5
, pp. 317
–327
.There is also a longer comprehensive biography by
Maurice P.
Crosland
, Gay-Lussac: Scientist and Bourgeois
(Cambridge U. P.
, New York
, 1978
).4.
His value was actually 1/267.
5.
Anders Celsius devised his temperature scale in 1742 and assigned to boiling water and to melting ice. In 1745, a year after Celsius died, Carl Linnaeus reversed the order.
6.
See Ref. 2, p.
28
.7.
Today a helium gas thermometer—helium was unknown in Gay-Lussac’s day—is an important part of modern thermometry. There is an internationally temperature scale called ITS-90. Its official definition is in French, but you can get a sense of its complexities by reading the English version. See
H.
Preston Thomas
, “The International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90)
,” Metrologia
27
, 3
–10
(1990
).8.
D. S. L.
Cardwell
, From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age
(Cornell U. P.
, Ithaca, NY
, 1971
), pp. 18
–19
126
–127
129
–131
, argues convincingly that there is no sound basis for attaching Amontons name to this law and that Charles’ name is attached because a 19th century textbook author misinterpeted Gay-Lussac’s acknowledgment of Charles’ earlier work. Cardwell sees some justification for associating Dalton with the law. His work was at the same time and similar to, although not as thorough as, Gay-Lussac’s. On balance, Cardwell concludes that it is Gay-Lussac who most deserves to have his name attached to the law.9.
C. B.
Spurgin
, “Gay-Lussac’s gas-expansivity experiments and the traditional mis-teaching of ‘Charles’s Law’
,” Ann. Sci.
44
, 489
–505
(1987
). Spurgin shows how textbooks came to assert erroneously that thermometers were used in Gay-Lussac’s experiments and so created and perpetuated the incorrect idea that Gay-Lussac measured gas expansion as a function of temperature measured with a mercury thermometer.10.
On the Gregorian calendar this date is Sunday, 31 January,
1802
.11.
In 1802, the Republic was already fading. Napoleon Bonaparte ruled as First Consul; he became emperor in
1804
; the Revolutionary calendar was abandoned at the end of 1805; and the government ceased using “citizen” as a form of address.12.
Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748–1822), an eminent and respected chemist, played a significant role in the science establishment of Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic France—a good person to have as mentor.
13.
J. A. C. Charles (1743–1826), French physicist and chemist, is the Charles whom Gay-Lussac acknowledges in his paper.
14.
Pierre Simon Laplace (1749–1827), French mathematician and astronomer for whom are named Laplace’s equation, the Laplacian, and the Laplace transform.
15.
See ⟨www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS75NtlH3gI⟩ for a different discussion of flask tasks and vessel manipulations.
16.
There are already many student experiments on gas expansion that do not use mercury. For example, see
Ronald S.
Strange
and Frank T.
Lang
, “A precise determination of absolute zero
,” J. Chem. Educ.
66
, 1054
–1055
(1989
)and the improved version described by
Jochen K.
Lehmann
, “Determining the thermal expansion coefficient of gases
,” J. Chem. Educ.
69
, 943
–944
(1992
).17.
Reference 2 contains several of the more important papers in which these scientists describe their advances.
18.
Deceased April 10,
2010
.19.
C. H.
Holbrow
, J. N.
Lloyd
, J. C.
Amato
, E.
Galvez
, and Beth
Parks
, Modern Introductory Physics
, 2nd ed. (Springer
, New York
, 2010
).© 2011 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2011
American Association of Physics Teachers
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