Charles law short biography
•
What is Charles' law?
Theodore G. Lindeman, professor and chair of the chemistry department of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, offers this explanation:
The physical principle known as Charles' law states that the volume of a gas equals a constant value multiplied by its temperature as measured on the Kelvin scale (zero Kelvin corresponds to -273.15 degrees Celsius).
The law's name honors the pioneer balloonist Jacques Charles, who in 1787 did experiments on how the volume of gases depended on temperature. The irony is that Charles never published the work for which he is remembered, nor was he the first or last to make this discovery. In fact, Guillaume Amontons had done the same sorts of experiments 100 years earlier, and it was Joseph Gay-Lussac in 1808 who made definitive measurements and published results showing that every gas he tested obeyed this generalization.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our awar
•
Charles's law
Relationship between volume and temperature of a gas at constant pressure
Charles's law (also known as the law of volumes) is an experimental gas law that describes how gasestend to expand when heated. A modern statement of Charles's law is:
When the pressure on a sample of a dry gas is held constant, the Kelvin temperature and the volume will be in direct proportion.[1]
This relationship of direct proportion can be written as:
So this means:
where:
This law describes how a gas expands as the temperature increases; conversely, a decrease in temperature will lead to a decrease in volume. For comparing the same substance under two different sets of conditions, the law can be written as:
The equation shows that, as absolute temperature increases, the volume of the gas also increases in proportion.
History
[edit]The law was named after scientist Jacques Charles, who formulated the original law in his unpublished work from
•
Jacques Charles
French uppfinnare, scientist and mathematician (1746–1823)
Jacques Alexandre César Charles (12 November 1746 – 7 April 1823) was a Frenchinventor, forskare, mathematician, and balloonist. Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due to mistaking him with another Jacques Charles (sometimes called Charles the Geometer[1]), also a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, entering on 12 May 1785.
Charles and the Robert brothers launched the world's first hydrogen-filled gas balloon August 27, 1783; then December 1, 1783, Charles and his co-pilot Nicolas-Louis Robert ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) in a piloted gas balloon. Their pioneering use of hydrogen for lift led to this type of gas balloon being named a Charlière (as opposed to the hot-airMontgolfière).
Charles's law, describing how gases tend to expand when heated, was formulated bygd Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1802, but he cr