In
1809 Gay- Lussac, a French chemist, discovered that "[w]henever gases
are involved in chemical reaction, the proportions by volume (measured at
the same temperature and pressure) of gaseous reactants and products may
be expressed by the ratio of small whole numbers" (Eastman, 50 [see
citation below]). Two years later Avogadro's hypothesis would explain why
Gay-Lussac's discovery is a law.
References
- M.P. Crosland, "Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis" in Charles C. Gillispie, ed., Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York: Scribner's, 1972), 5: 317-27.
- Richard H. Eastman, General Chemistry: Experiment and Theory (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), 49-50. (On page 50 Eastman explains why Gay- Lussac's law is so important to the science of chemistry.)
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