The Gas Laws

A brief history of the gas laws

The gas laws we are about to study are the product of centuries of careful experimental work on the physical behaviour of gases.

• The first reliable measurements on the properties of gases were made by the Anglo-Irish scientist Robert Boyle in 1662, whose findings became known as Boyle's Law.
• Later, the practical challenge of flying using hot-air balloons pushed Jacques Charles and Joseph Louis Gay Lussac to uncover further relationships between the properties of gases.
• Contributions from Avogadro and other scientists added still more understanding of the gaseous state. …