Boyle, Robert experimentalism

BOYLE, ROBERT (1627-1691). Boyle was an Anglo-Irish scientist who is known for his research in chemistry, physics, and medicine. lie is also remembered for his inventions and also for his study of philosophy and theology. He was educated at Eton College from 1635 to 1639. Beginning in 1644, he began doing experimental scientific work and he is considered one of the founders of modern science. 

Robert Boyle discovered experimentally that the volume of a gas in a J-tube apparatus at a constant temperature varied in inverse proportion to the pressure. This is known as Boyle s law. Boyle s law may be expressed mathematically as ... 

The classic account is Marie Boas, Robert Boyle. See also Boas s introductory essay in Robert Boyle on Natural Philosophy (Indiana University Press, 1965), 81-93. On the role of chemistry in shaping Boyle s experimental philosophy, see Rose-Mary Sargent, Learning from Experience Boyle s Construction of an Experimental Philosophy, in Robert Boyle Reconsidered, ed. M. Hunter (Cambridge University Press, 1994) idem. The Diffident Naturalist (University of Chicago Press, 1995). 

Boyle, Robert. (1627-1691). A native of Ireland, Boyle devoted his life to experiments in what was then called natural philosophy, i.e., physical science. He was influenced early by Galileo. His interest aroused by a pump that had just been invented, Boyle studied the properties of air, on which he wrote a treatise (1660). Soon thereafter, he stated the famous law that bears his name (see following entry). Boyle s group of scientific enthusiasts was known as the invisible college , and in 1663 it became the Royal Society of London. Boyle was one of the first to apply the principle that Francis Bacon had described as the new method —namely, inductive experimentation as opposed to the deductive method of Aristotle—and this became and has remained the cornerstone of scientific research. Boyle also investigated hydrostatics, desalination of seawater, crystals, electricity, etc. He approached but never quite stated the atomic theory of matter however, he did distinguish between compounds and mixtures and conceived the idea of particles becoming associated to form molecules. 

The first chemist to perform truly quantitative experiments was Robert Boyle (1627-1691), who carefully measured the relationship between the pressure and volume of air. When Boyle published his book The Skeptical Chymist in 1661, the quantitative sciences of physics and chemistry were bom. In addition to his results on the quantitative behavior of gases, Boyle s other major contribution to chemistry consisted of his ideas about the chemical elements. Boyle held no preconceived notion about the number of elements. In his view, a substance was an element unless it could be broken down into two or more simpler substances. As Boyle s experimental definition of an element became generally accepted, the list of known elements began to grow, and the Greek system of four elements finally died. Although Boyle was an excellent scientist. 

The quantity Jc3, like k2 and k2, is a constant This is the equation of an inverse proportionality. The fact that volume is inversely proportional to pressure was first established in 1660 by Robert Boyle (1627-1691), an Irish experimental scientist The equation above is one form of Boyle s law. 

The above evidence brings us to the importance of experimentation with gases for the understanding of chemistry, and the desired connection with the representa-tional/symbolic and submicro levels. History of chemistry is of paramount importance here. First, tribute must be paid to the great contribution to the role of the experiment in chemistry by Robert Boyle (1627-1691). Consequently, a diversion to the history of the study of gases is deemed essential. ... 

Odling, M.G." The experimental basis of Robert Boyle s objections to the Aristotelian and alchemical doctrines." MSc thesis, Univ of London, 1928. 

In 1661 Robert Boyle (1627-1691), an early chemist from Great Britain, published a book tided The Skeptical Chymist, which was the beginning of the end of alchemy. His book ruled the perceptions and behavior of early scientists for almost 100 years. Two of his contributions were the use of experimental procedures to determine properties of the chemical elements... 

Robert Boyle (1627-1691), an English scientist, noticed that gases can be compressed. He used J-shaped tubes to show that gas pressure and gas volume at a constant temperature and amount are inversely related. His experiments were performed with one variable, and his conclusions were drawn from experimental observations. He argued that theories should be the result of experimental observations, and therefore he considered is the founder of the modem scientific method. 

Robert Boyle was a seventeenth-century Irish scientist who studied the relationship between pressure and volume in gases. He confined his experimentation to these factors, without any change in temperature. As you visualize a situation in which only volume and pressure can change, think of a helium-filled balloon. If you squeeze the balloon to make it smaller, you can feel the pressure inside it become greater and greater. The balloon could even burst because of the pressure. In mathematical terms, Boyle s Law states that volume and pressure are inversely proportional. That is, as volume decreases, pressure increases. This law also means that as volume increases, pressure decreases. 

Robert Halleux, "L alchemiste et l essayeur," in Die Alchemie in der europaischen Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, ed. Christoph Meinel (Wiesbaden Harrassowitz, 1986), 277-92 William R. Newman, "The Place of Alchemy in the Current Literature on Experiment," in Experimental Essays Versuche zum Experiment, ed. Michael Heidelberger and Friedrich Steinle (Baden-Baden Nomos, 1998), 9-33 William R. Newman and Lawrence M. Principe, Alchemy Tried in the Fire Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 2002), chap. 2. 

Marie Boas, Robert Boyle and Seventeenth-Century Chemistry (Cambridge University Press, 1958), 133-141. See also A. Albert Baker, A History of Indicators, Chymia 9, 1964, 147-167 Peta Dewar Buchanan, J. F. Gibson, and Marie Boas Hall, Experimental History of Science Boyle s Colour Changes, Ambix 25, 1978, 208-210 William Eamon, New Light on Robert Boyle and the Discovery of Colour Indicators, Ambix 27, 1980, 204-209. 

This equation expresses Boyle s law. The law was inferred from experimental data by the English natural scientist Robert Boyle (1627-1691) in 1662. 

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