In equations, the formula:
is called Boyle’s law (or sometimes Mariotte’s law) and states that for a body of ideal gas, at constant particle count and temperature, not too far from STP, the product of the pressure P and volume V of the gas will be equal to a constant k.
History
The equation was derived through studies of the pneumatical engine (1658) and stated at verbally in 1662 by Robert Boyle in his New Experiments on the Spring of the Air and then in 1676 by French physicist Edme Mariotte in his The Nature of Air. This was the first of the various gas laws.
Human thermodynamics
This was the formula used by English physicist C.G. Darwin in his 1952 “introduction” section to his The Next Million Years to give an outline of the subject of human thermodynamics as the study of the behaviors of human molecules.
Further reading
● V.H.V. (1886). “Abstract: Deviations of Oxygen at Low Pressure from Boyle’s Law.”, Journal of the Chemical Society (pg. 591). Royal Society.
