Skip to main content Skip to Search Box
Listen
Email

Topic Pages contain an overview, definitions, biographies, related topics, images, plus links to relevant articles and other content provided by your library. Topic Page: Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis (1778 - 1850)

Definition: Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis 1778-1850, from Dictionary of Energy

French chemist noted for his original investigations into the behavior of gases. He deduced that gases at constant temperature and pressure combine in very simple numerical proportions by volume.

Summary Article: Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis
from The Columbia Encyclopedia

(zhôzĕf' lwē gā-lüsäk'), 1778–1850, French chemist and physicist. He was professor in Paris at the Sorbonne, at the Polytechnic School, and at the Jardin des Plantes. Gay-Lussac made two balloon ascensions in 1804, attaining on the second a height of about 7,016 m (23,000 ft), to test the variation of the earth's magnetic field and the composition of the atmosphere at varying altitudes. He made advances in industrial chemistry; in the field of analytical chemistry he improved the methods of analyzing gas mixtures, studied prussic acid and iodine, and isolated cyanogen. With L. J. Thénard he improved Davy's method of isolating alkali metals, showed chlorine to be an element, and isolated boron. In physics he is known especially for his work on gases. In 1802 he discovered independently that a gas at constant pressure expands, for each degree of temperature, by a constant fraction of its volume at 0 degrees Celsius. This law, first discovered (1787) by J. A. C. Charles, is known as Charles's law or as Gay-Lussac's law (see gas laws). However, Gay-Lussac's name is more commonly associated with another law of gases, the law of combining volumes, which Gay-Lussac was the first to formulate (c.1808). This law states that the volumes of gases that interact to give a gaseous product are in the ratio of small whole numbers to each other and that each bears a similar relation to the volume of the product.

"Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis." In The Columbia Encyclopedia, by Paul Lagasse, and Columbia University. 8th ed. Columbia University Press, 2018. https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/gay_lussac_joseph_1778_1850
Gay Lussac, Joseph Louis. (2018). In P. Lagasse & Columbia University, The Columbia encyclopedia. (8th ed.). [Online]. New York: Columbia University Press. Available from: https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/gay_lussac_joseph_1778_1850 [Accessed 20 May 2019].
"Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Paul Lagasse, and Columbia University, Columbia University Press, 8th edition, 2018. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/gay_lussac_joseph_1778_1850. Accessed 20 May 2019.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, © Columbia University Press 2018

Related Articles

Full text Article Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis
Philip's Encyclopedia

1778-1850 French chemist and physicist. He discovered (1808) the law that gases combine in a simple ratio by volume (Gay-Lussac's law)....

Full text Article Gay-Lussac , Joseph Louis (1778 - 1850)
The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists

An adventurous child and a brilliant student, Gay-Lussac grew up during and after the French Revolution. Lavoisier had...

Full text Article Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis 1778-1850
Reader's Guide to the History of Science

French chemist and physicist Arago Dominique François Jean , “ Gay-Lussac ”, in Oeuvres, 17 vols , Paris , 1854-62 ; (Notices...

See more from Credo