Reading Assignment # 2

1. Explain why Boyle is called both the last alchemist and first chemist.
He doesn’t ignore alchemy but rather he tries to weed out the fact from fiction using methods that will later be standard in chemistry.

2. Of what practical use was Boyle's earlier works employed?
They used his expertise to define elements.

3. Explain Boyle's Law (not a rewrite)
“The volume of a gas at a constant temperature is inversely proportional to the pressure put on it.” This means that when the gas is at a temperature that isn’t changing, it has the opposite measurement of a gas that has pressure being put on it.

4. What is the real significance of Boyle's Law to the development of modern scientific thought?
It is the basis for much scientific research with gasses. And with this law he is announcing that science follows rules, and that air has elasticity.

5. Based on this chapter, create a list of what the Greeks (notably Aristotle) seemed to have correctly theorized and a list of their disproved theories.
Torricelli discovered that the air pressing down on the surface reached a balance with the mass in the tube, disproving Aristotle and creating the first barometer. Guericke proved that there could be a vacuum disproving Aristotle. Although Aristotle was right that you wouldn’t be able to hear anything in a vacuum.