Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Boyle's law is an experimental gas law that describes how the volume of a gas increases as the pressure decreases.
In this demonstration, the pressure of the gas inside the round bottomed flask is decreased using a vacuum pump. Notice how the marshmallow increases in volume. This is due to the presence of tiny bubbles of gas expanding inside the marshmallow.
Robert Boyle is regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry. In particular, he is often seen at the founder of the 'scientific method'. He wrote about this is a book called 'The Sceptical Chymist' (1661). A scientific conclusion is based on inductive reasoning using experiments. As the weight of positive evidence mounts, this conclusion becomes more probable, but never certain. This is distinct from 'deductive reasoning', common in Mathematics, where the conclusion is certain. In the same book, Boyle also gave what some regard as the first correct definition of an element:
"I now mean by Elements, as those Chymists that speak plainest do by their Principles, certain Primitive and Simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the Ingredients of all those call'd perfectly mixt Bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved."
In doing so, Boyle rejected the Aristotelian theory of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and also the three principles (salt, sulfur, and mercury) proposed by Paracelsus. Boyle did not use the word 'atom', he used a subtly different idea called a 'corpuscle'. Unlike atoms, corpuscle are divisible. Boyle incorrectly believed that pure elements did not exist. The first modern list of chemical elements was given in Antoine Lavoisier's 1789 Elements of Chemistry, which contained thirty-three elements, including light and caloric.
There is a painting by Joseph Wright called 'An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump' (1768). It depicts a recreation of one of Robert Boyle's famous air pump experiments: similar to the demonstration in this video. The picture is in the National Gallery, London, and is the only one to show a scientific experiment in progress. The painting can be seen in the background of the Bond film 'Skyfall'.
Robert Boyle was the supervisor of another famous scientist: Robert Hooke.
Boyle's law is an experimental gas law that describes how the volume of a gas increases as the pressure decreases.
In this demonstration, the pressure of the gas inside the round bottomed flask is decreased using a vacuum pump. Notice how the marshmallow increases in volume. This is due to the presence of tiny bubbles of gas expanding inside the marshmallow.
Robert Boyle is regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry. In particular, he is often seen at the founder of the 'scientific method'. He wrote about this is a book called 'The Sceptical Chymist' (1661). A scientific conclusion is based on inductive reasoning using experiments. As the weight of positive evidence mounts, this conclusion becomes more probable, but never certain. This is distinct from 'deductive reasoning', common in Mathematics, where the conclusion is certain. In the same book, Boyle also gave what some regard as the first correct definition of an element:
"I now mean by Elements, as those Chymists that speak plainest do by their Principles, certain Primitive and Simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the Ingredients of all those call'd perfectly mixt Bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved."
In doing so, Boyle rejected the Aristotelian theory of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and also the three principles (salt, sulfur, and mercury) proposed by Paracelsus. Boyle did not use the word 'atom', he used a subtly different idea called a 'corpuscle'. Unlike atoms, corpuscle are divisible. Boyle incorrectly believed that pure elements did not exist. The first modern list of chemical elements was given in Antoine Lavoisier's 1789 Elements of Chemistry, which contained thirty-three elements, including light and caloric.
There is a painting by Joseph Wright called 'An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump' (1768). It depicts a recreation of one of Robert Boyle's famous air pump experiments: similar to the demonstration in this video. The picture is in the National Gallery, London, and is the only one to show a scientific experiment in progress. The painting can be seen in the background of the Bond film 'Skyfall'.
Robert Boyle was the supervisor of another famous scientist: Robert Hooke.
