Joseph Gay-Lussac was born on December 6th 1778 and grew up during both French and chemical revolutions. He was privately tutored as a young child before his tutor fled and his father was imprisoned due to social and political problems. However these circumstances slightly benefited Gay-Lussac as he was selected to join an institution that was meant to help create chemical and technical support for the country and especially the military. Gay-Lussac later became a professor at the École Polytechnique teaching chemistry and Physics (Green & Peterson).
Over roughly a year of research (1801-1802) Gay-Lussac discovered the pressure temperature law and concluded that: “the pressure of a given amount of gas held at constant volume is directly proportional to the Kelvin temperature” (quote sourced from http://chemistry.bd.psu.edu/jircitano/gases.html ) he also concluded that equal volumes of gas expand equally with the same rise in temperature. This law is formally known as Charles’ Law as Jacques Charles had almost come to the same conclusion 15 years earlier, Gay-Lussac had only fully proved Charles’ hypothesis. However what Charles did not find was the proper coefficient of expansion. This was because Charles did not get rid of the moisture in the apparatus and in the gases themselves. The water soluble gases, which Charles had, had unequal expansion rates due to the water content. He also discovered the combining volumes law where the ratio of the volume of gases involved in chemical reactions. He was surprised that when he combined hydrogen and oxygen, he found that they formed in simple 2:1 ratio’s.
Gay-Lussac had also made a few other contributions to science by creating new apparatuses such as the portable barometer (based off the Torricellian barometer) that was fully contained an improved and more accurate pipette and burette and during his time working at the mint he created an apparatus for determining the purity of silver. This apparartus for determining silvers purity was so accurate that it was considered the only legal way to test purity and was used in France up until 1881. Gay-Lussac was also a passionate balloonist who used his balloon to study many different concepts on gases. Not only did he set a record height that would not have been beaten for another 50 years but he also saw the differences in the pressure, temperature and humidity of the air at various altitudes from which he first tested in the balloon and then took samples to be analysed back at the lab (Green & Peterson).
An example of Gay-Lussac’s law can be seen within a heating up soft drink can. If the can were to be placed in an oven or on a fire, or even inside a hot car, the temperature for when it explodes must be known. With a 375ml can at 25 degrees and 1.2 atm, what temperature will the can explode at if it explodes at 2.5 atm? = 2.5 x 298.15 / 1.2 = 621.1 K = 347.9 degrees C . Based on this equation the can would be safe within a car, but a fire or oven could make it explode.
An example of his other law (the combining gas law) Is simply the reaction between 1 gas and another. If 3 litres of nitrogen gas were reacted with 9 litres of hydrogen gas, how much ammonia would be produced? As all the reactants and products are gases the ratios between them in a chemical formula results in the volumes of the gas produced. As 2 parts of ammonia are produced for each reaction, 6 litres of ammonia gas will be produced.
Over roughly a year of research (1801-1802) Gay-Lussac discovered the pressure temperature law and concluded that: “the pressure of a given amount of gas held at constant volume is directly proportional to the Kelvin temperature” (quote sourced from http://chemistry.bd.psu.edu/jircitano/gases.html ) he also concluded that equal volumes of gas expand equally with the same rise in temperature. This law is formally known as Charles’ Law as Jacques Charles had almost come to the same conclusion 15 years earlier, Gay-Lussac had only fully proved Charles’ hypothesis. However what Charles did not find was the proper coefficient of expansion. This was because Charles did not get rid of the moisture in the apparatus and in the gases themselves. The water soluble gases, which Charles had, had unequal expansion rates due to the water content. He also discovered the combining volumes law where the ratio of the volume of gases involved in chemical reactions. He was surprised that when he combined hydrogen and oxygen, he found that they formed in simple 2:1 ratio’s.
Gay-Lussac had also made a few other contributions to science by creating new apparatuses such as the portable barometer (based off the Torricellian barometer) that was fully contained an improved and more accurate pipette and burette and during his time working at the mint he created an apparatus for determining the purity of silver. This apparartus for determining silvers purity was so accurate that it was considered the only legal way to test purity and was used in France up until 1881. Gay-Lussac was also a passionate balloonist who used his balloon to study many different concepts on gases. Not only did he set a record height that would not have been beaten for another 50 years but he also saw the differences in the pressure, temperature and humidity of the air at various altitudes from which he first tested in the balloon and then took samples to be analysed back at the lab (Green & Peterson).
An example of Gay-Lussac’s law can be seen within a heating up soft drink can. If the can were to be placed in an oven or on a fire, or even inside a hot car, the temperature for when it explodes must be known. With a 375ml can at 25 degrees and 1.2 atm, what temperature will the can explode at if it explodes at 2.5 atm? = 2.5 x 298.15 / 1.2 = 621.1 K = 347.9 degrees C . Based on this equation the can would be safe within a car, but a fire or oven could make it explode.
An example of his other law (the combining gas law) Is simply the reaction between 1 gas and another. If 3 litres of nitrogen gas were reacted with 9 litres of hydrogen gas, how much ammonia would be produced? As all the reactants and products are gases the ratios between them in a chemical formula results in the volumes of the gas produced. As 2 parts of ammonia are produced for each reaction, 6 litres of ammonia gas will be produced.