Robert Boyle essays

Robert Boyle essays Robert Boyle was born in Ireland in the county of Waterford in the city of Lismore on the 25th of January 1627. His father Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, had left England in 1588. Roberts mother, Catherine Fenton Boyle, was Richards second wife. Robert was the seventh son. His parents had a total of fifteen children. At the age of twelve Roberts father sent him on a tour of Europe eventually leading him to Geneva. There he began to study, with a private tutor, mathematics and ... he grew very well acquainted with the most useful part of arithmetic, geometry, with its subordinates, the doctrine of the sphere, that of the globe, and fortification. There had been a civil war going on in England at the time. When the war had finished Cromwell granted Irish lands to the English colonists. As a result of this, Richard became a very rich man. He then no longer had a need for a source of income and was able to devote both himself and his time to science. He contributed to physics and chemistry. His biggest contribution being Boyles Law, which relates volume and pressure in a gas. The law describes an ideal gas. This law can be found in the appendix written to Boyles work New Experiments Physio Mechanical, Touching the Springs of the Air and its Effects. Using a vacuum he discovered that sound did not travel in a vacuum, he proved that fire required air to burn, and he tested airs elastic properties. Robert published his findings through the Royal Society, of which he was a founding fellow. He aimed towards establishing chemistry as a mathematical science. He argued a mechanistic theory of matter. Its complex look is actually just simple mathematical laws applied to simple fundamental particles. In 1670, Boyle had a stroke. He slowly regained his health and continued to conduct research and experiment. In 1680 he declined the title of Pre ...