Gay-Lsac's Law—Its Centenary

JOSEPH LOUIS GAY-LSAC

Joseph-Louis Gay-Lsac, French chemist and physicist who pneered vtigatns to the behavur of gas, tablished new techniqu for analysis, and ma notable advanc applied chemistry. Gay-Lsac was the elst son of a provcial lawyer and royal official who lost his posn wh * gay lussac's law discovery *

French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac proposed two fundamental laws of gas the early 19th century.

While one is generally attributed to a fellow untryman, the other is well known as Gay-Lsac’s law. Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac (1778–1850) grew up durg both the French and Chemil Revolutns. Gay-Lsac’s own reer as a profsor of physics and chemistry began at the Éle Polytechnique.

In 1804 Gay-Lsac ma several darg ascents of over 7, 000 meters above sea level hydrogen-filled balloons—a feat not equaled for another 50 years—that allowed him to vtigate other aspects of gas. In 1808 Gay-Lsac announced what was probably his sgle greatt achievement: om his own and others’ experiments he duced that gas at nstant temperature and prsure be simple numeril proportns by volume, and the rultg product or products—if gas—also bear a simple proportn by volume to the volum of the reactants.

JOSEPH-LOUIS GAY-LSAC

* gay lussac's law discovery *

This ncln subsequently beme known as Gay-Lsac’s law. Wh his fellow profsor at the Éle Polytechnique, Louis Jacqu Thénard, Gay-Lsac also participated early electrochemil rearch, vtigatg the elements disvered by s means. Featured image: Undated portra of Joseph Louis Gay-Lsac.

Joseph-Louis Gay-Lsac, (born December 6, 1778, Sat-Léonard--Noblat, France—died May 9, 1850, Paris), French chemist and physicist who pneered vtigatns to the behavur of gas, tablished new techniqu for analysis, and ma notable advanc applied chemistry. Gay-Lsac was the elst son of a provcial lawyer and royal official who lost his posn wh the French Revolutn of 1789. Early his schoolg, Gay-Lsac acquired an tert science, and his mathematil abily enabled him to pass the entrance examatn for the newly found Éle Polytechnique, where stunts’ expens were paid by the state.

Gay-Lsac proved to be an exemplary stunt durg his studi there om 1797 to 1800.

CHARL' LAW AND GAY-LSAC'S LAW

Joseph Gay-Lsac, a French scientist, is often creded wh the disvery of the prsure-temperature law the early 1800s even though Guillme Amontons, another French scientist had nducted a siar experiment earlier on wh the same ncln. Gay-Lsac’s experimental apparat volv immersg a gas-filled, fixed-volume bulb-like pper ntaer a temperature ntrolled water bath. The * gay lussac's law discovery *

The society’s first volume of memoirs, published 1807, clud ntributns om Gay-Lsac.

At Arcueil, Berthollet was joed by the ement mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace, who engaged Gay-Lsac experiments on pillary orr to study short-range forc. Gay-Lsac’s first publitn (1802), however, was on the thermal expansn of gas. Charl as “Charl’s law, ” was the first of several regulari the behavur of matter that Gay-Lsac tablished.

” Of the laws Gay-Lsac disvered, he remas bt known for his law of the bg volum of gas (1808). Gay-Lsac’s approach to the study of matter was nsistently volumetric rather than gravimetric, ntrast to that of his English ntemporary John Dalton. Another example of Gay-Lsac’s fondns for volumetric rats appeared an 1810 vtigatn to the posn of vegetable substanc performed wh his iend Louis-Jacqu Thenard.

GAY-LSAC’S LAW

Learn what Gay Lsac's law is, real-life exampl of Gay-Lucs's law, and see several solved example problems of this gas law. * gay lussac's law discovery *

As a young man, Gay-Lsac participated dangero explos for scientific purpos. In a followg solo flight, Gay-Lsac reached 7, 016 metr (more than 23, 000 feet), thereby settg a rerd for the hight balloon flight that remaed unbroken for a half-century.

In 1805–06, amid the Napoleonic wars, Gay-Lsac embarked upon a European tour wh another Arcueil lleague, the Pssian explorer Alexanr von Humboldt.

Gay-Lsac’s rearch together wh the patronage of Berthollet and the Arcueil group helped him to ga membership the prtig First Class of the Natnal Instute (later the Amy of Scienc) at an early stage his reer (1806).

HOW DID GAY LSAC'S DISVER HIS LAW?

GAY-LUSSAC';S law regardg the posn of gas by volume was ma known about a hundred years ago. The paper which he elaborated , havg been read to the Société philomatique on December 31, 1808, was published the Mémoir la Société d'Arcil the followg year. Sce then the law has e to have a history of s own. Chemists were at a loss and ma many efforts to get and the atomic theory to su one another, and the place of the law science, though not now likely to change, was for long unsettled and dub. * gay lussac's law discovery *

Three years prevly Gay-Lsac had been appoted to the junr post of répétr at the Éle Polytechnique where, 1810, he received a profsorship chemistry that clud a substantial salary.

Gay-Lsac’s appotment to the faculty of the Éle Polytechnique 1804 provid him wh laboratory facili the centre of Paris.

GAY LSAC’S LAW

Rivalry between Gay-Lsac and Davy reached a climax over the de experiments Davy rried out durg an extraordary vis to Paris November 1813, at a time when France was at war wh Bra.

Gay-Lsac prented a much more plete study of de a long memoir prented to the Natnal Instute on Augt 1, 1814, and subsequently published the Annal chimie. In 1815 Gay-Lsac experimentally monstrated that pssic acid was simply hydrocyanic acid, a pound of rbon, hydrogen, and nrogen, and he also isolated the pound cyanogen [(CN)2 or C2N2]. Begng 1816, Gay-Lsac served as the jot edor of the Annal chimie et physique, a posn he shared wh his former Arcueil lleague François Arago.

Gay-Lsac also performed experiments to terme the strength of alholic liquors.

Still, Gay-Lsac did not pe cricism om lleagu for turng away om the path of “pure” science and toward the path of fancial ga. Gay-Lsac was a key figure the velopment of the new science of volumetric analysis. Prevly a few c trials had been rried out to timate the strength of chlore solutns bleachg, but Gay-Lsac troduced a scientific rigour to chemil quantifitn and vised important modifitns to apparat.

GAY-LSAC’S LAW: INTRODUCTN, FORMULA AND DERIVATN

The prcipl of volumetric analysis uld be tablished only through Gay-Lsac’s theoretil and practil geni but, once tablished, the analysis self uld be rried out by a junr assistant wh brief trag. Gay-Lsac published an entire seri of Instctns on subjects rangg om the timatn of potash (1818) to the nstctn of lightng nductors. In 1831 Gay-Lsac was elected to the Chamber of Deputi and 1839 received a peerage.

Gay-Lsac's Law: Meang, Formula, and Applitns

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