Concept

Boyle's law

Overview

Boyle's law, also referred to as the Boyle–Mariotte law or Mariotte's law (especially in France), is an empirical gas law that describes the relationship between pressure and volume of a confined gas. Boyle's law has been stated as:

The absolute pressure exerted by a given mass of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to the volume it occupies if the temperature and amount of gas remain unchanged within a closed system.

Mathematically, Boyle's law can be stated as:

where P is the pressure of the gas, V is the volume of the gas, and k is a constant for a particular temperature and amount of gas.

Boyle's law states that when the temperature of a given mass of confined gas is constant, the product of its pressure and volume is also constant. When comparing the same substance under two different sets of conditions, the law can be expressed as:

{\displaystyle P_{1}V_{1}=P_{2}V_{2}.}

showing that as volume increases, the pressure of a gas decreases proportionally, and vice versa.

Boyle's law is named after Robert Boyle, who published the original law in 1662. An equivalent law is Mariotte’s law, named after French physicist Edme Mariotte.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Boyle's law is discussed.

Regnault, scientist as he was, did not trouble himself with such childish performances. He investigated further and found that Boyle's law is only approximately correct, having no validity in the case of gases which can be made liquid by pressure when the pressure approaches the point where liquefaction sets in. Boyle's law therefore is shown only to be true within specific bounds. But is it absolute, a final truth…
Friedrich Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
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The establishment of this comprehensive law has led to a change in the language in which the scientific world had been accustomed to speak of what are called the Forces of nature. Before this correlation between phenomena most unlike one another had been ascertained, their unlikeness had caused them to be referred to so many distinct forces.
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
states what it is
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The former we call soft, the latter hard, bodies. In some bodies the parts are so very easily separable, that they not only yield to a very moderate pressure, but easily receive the pressing body within them, and without much resistance allow it to traverse their extent in every possible direction. These are called Fluid, in contradistinction to those of which the parts not being so easily separable, are upon that…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
states what it is
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This is called by the schools a motion to prevent a vacuum. It takes place when water is drawn up by suction or a syringe, the flesh by cupping, or when the water remains without escaping from perforated jars, unless the mouth be opened to admit the air, and innumerable instances of a like nature.
Francis Bacon, Novum organum
states what it is
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If we knew, therefore, the three simple laws, but had never tried the Torricellian experiment, we might _deduce_ its result from those laws. The known weight of the air, combined with the position of the apparatus, would bring the mercury within the first of the three inductions; the first induction would bring it within the second, and the second within…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic
states what it is
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Boyle's law

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Boyle's law

Related ideas

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