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Boyle's law — Robert Boyle

1662 AD · Transmission: Global
ChemistryNatural lawBritish

Robert Boyle, born in Lismore (County Waterford, Ireland), formulates in 1662 the inverse relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas at constant temperature (PV = constant), published in the second edition of his work New Experiments Physico-Mechanical. It is the first quantitative law of modern chemistry and the foundation of the experimental study of gases. Boyle is also considered the father of modern chemistry for separating alchemy from experimental chemistry in The Sceptical Chymist (1661). He built his entire career in Oxford and London, but his Irish origin rarely appears in the canonical narrative of British physics.

InstitutionRoyal Society, London / Wadham College Oxford
Historical regionIreland (present-day Republic of Ireland) / England
Primary sourceBoyle, R. — New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects, 2nd ed. (1662)
Secondary sourceScience History Institute — Robert Boyle biography; Britannica — Robert Boyle
Original languageEnglish
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