Amedeo Avogadro

Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro di as the university officially declared, it was “very glad to
Quaregna e di Cerreto,[1] Count of Quaregna and allow this interesting scientist to take a rest from heavy
Cerreto (9 August 1776, Turin, Piedmont-Sardinia – 9 teaching duties, in order to be able to give better atten-
July 1856) was an Italian scientist. He is most noted tion to his researches”). Eventually, King Charles Albert
for his contributions to molecular theory, including granted a Constitution (Statuto Albertino) in 1848. Well
what is known as Avogadro’s law. In tribute to him, before this, Avogadro had been recalled to the univer-
the number of elementary entities (atoms, molecules, sity in Turin in 1833, where he taught for another twenty
ions or other particles) in 1 mole of a substance, years.[2]
6.02214179(30)×1023 , is known as the Avogadro con- Little is known about Avogadro’s private life, which ap-
stant, one of the seven SI base units and represented by pears to have been sober and religious. He married
NA. Felicita Mazzé and had six children. Avogadro held
posts dealing with statistics, meteorology, and weights
and measures (he introduced the metric system into Pied-
1 Biography mont) and was a member of the Royal Superior Council
on Public Instruction.
Amedeo Carlo Avogadro was born in Turin, Italy in In honor of Avogadro’s contributions to molecular the-
1776 to a noble family of Piedmont-Sardinia. ory, the number of molecules in one mole was named
Avogadro’s number, NA or “Avogadro’s constant”. It is
Amedeo Avogadro was born on August 9, 1776 in Turin,
approximately 6.0221415 × 1023 . Avogadro’s number is
in the Kingdom of Sardinia. His full name is Lorenzo
used to compute the results of chemical reactions. It al-
Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro di Quaregna e di Cer-
lows chemists to determine amounts of substances pro-
reto. Avogadro received a tribute for his concepts of Avo-
duced in a given reaction to a great degree of accuracy.
gadro’s Law and Avogadro’s Number. Avogadro died on
July 9, 1856. Since childhood, Avogadro had a deep in- Johann Josef Loschmidt first calculated the value of Avo-
terest in science. Growing up, he was inspired by the likes gadro’s number, often referred to as the Loschmidt num-
of Galileo and Newton and was sent to school by his fa- ber in German-speaking countries (Loschmidt constant
ther to become a lawyer. now has another meaning).
He graduated in ecclesiastical law at the early age of 31
and began to practice. Soon after, he dedicated himself to
physics and mathematics (then called positive philosophy), 2 Accomplishments
and in 1809 started teaching them at a liceo (high school)
in Vercelli, where his family lived and had some property. Avogadro’s Law states that the relationship between the
In 1810, he published an article with the title Essai d'une masses of the same volume of same gases (at the same
manière de déterminer les masses relatives des molécules temperature and pressure) corresponds to the relationship
élémentaires des corps, et les proportions selon lesquelles between their respective molecular weights. Hence, the
elles entrent dans ces combinaisons (“Essay on Determin- relative molecular mass of a gas can be calculated from
ing the Relative Masses of the Elementary Molecules of the mass of sample of known volume.
Bodies and the Proportions by Which They Enter These Avogadro developed this hypothesis after Joseph Louis
Combinations”), which contains Avogadro’s hypothesis. Gay-Lussac had published in 1808 his law on volumes
Avogadro submitted this essay to a Jean-Claude De- (and combining gases). The greatest problem Avogadro
lamétherie's Journal de Physique, de Chimie et d'Histoire had to resolve was the confusion at that time regarding
naturelle (“Journal of Physics, Chemistry and Natural atoms and molecules. One of his most important con-
History”, Piedmont at the time forming part of the First tributions was clearly distinguishing one from the other,
French Empire). stating that gases are composed of molecules, and these
In 1820, he became professor of physics at the Univer- molecules are composed of atoms. For instance, John
sity of Turin. Turin was now the capital of the restored Dalton did not consider this possibility. Avogadro did
Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel not actually use the word “atom” as the words “atom” and
I. Avogadro was active in the revolutionary movement of “molecule” were used almost without difference. He be-
March 1821. As a result, he lost his chair in 1823 (or, lieved that there were three kinds of “molecules,” includ-

1
2 5
ing an “elementary molecule” (our “atom”). Also, more 4 volumes.
attention was given to the definition of mass, as distin-
guished from weight.
Mémoire
In 1815, he published Mémoire sur les masses relatives
des molécules des corps simples, ou densités présumées de
leur gaz, et sur la constitution de quelques-uns de leur com-
posés, pour servir de suite à l'Essai sur le même sujet, pub-
lié dans le Journal de Physique, juillet 1811 (“Note on
the Relative Masses of Elementary Molecules, or Sug-
gested Densities of Their Gases, and on the Constituents
of Some of Their Compounds, As a Follow-up to the
Essay on the Same Subject, Published in the Journal of
Physics, July 1811”) (), about gas densities.
In 1821 he published another paper, Nouvelles consid-
érations sur la théorie des proportions déterminées dans
les combinaisons, et sur la détermination des masses des
molécules des corps (New Considerations on the Theory
of Proportions Determined in Combinations, and on De-
termination of the Masses of Atoms) and shortly after-
wards, Mémoire sur la manière de ramener les composès
organiques aux lois ordinaires des proportions déterminées
(Note on the Manner of Finding the Organic Composition
by the Ordinary Laws of Determined Proportions).
In 1841, he published his work in Fisica dei corpi ponder-
abili, ossia Trattato della costituzione materiale de' corpi,
REFERENCES
3 Response to the theory
The scientific community did not give great attention to
his theory, so Avogadro’s hypothesis was not immediately
accepted. André-Marie Ampère achieved the same re-
sults three years later by another method (in his Sur la
détermination des proportions dans lesquelles les corps se
combinent d'après le nombre et la disposition respective des
molécules dont leurs particules intégrantes sont composées
-- On the Determination of Proportions in which Bodies
Combine According to the Number and the Respective Dis-
position of the Molecules by Which Their Integral Particles
Are Made), but the same indifference was shown to his
theory as well.
Only through studies by Charles Frédéric Gerhardt and
Auguste Laurent on organic chemistry was it possible to
demonstrate that Avogadro’s law explained why the same
quantities of molecules in a gas have the same volume.
Unfortunately, related experiments with some inorganic
substances showed seeming exceptions to the law. This
was finally resolved by Stanislao Cannizzaro, as an-
nounced at Karlsruhe Congress in 1860, four years af-
ter Avogadro’s death. He explained that these excep-
tions were due to molecular dissociations at certain tem-
peratures, and that Avogadro’s law determined not only
molecular masses, but atomic masses as well.
In 1911, a meeting in Turin commemorated the hun-
dredth anniversary of the publication of Avogadro’s clas-
sic 1811 paper. King Victor Emmanuel III attended.
Thus, Avogadro’s great contribution to chemistry was
recognized.
Rudolf Clausius, with his kinetic theory on gases, gave
another confirmation of Avogadro’s Law. Jacobus Hen-
ricus van 't Hoff showed that Avogadro’s theory also held
in dilute solutions.
Avogadro is hailed as a founder of the atomic-molecular
theory.
4 See also
• Avogadro (lunar crater)
• Avogadro constant
5 References
[1] Guareschi, Icilio (1911), “Amedeo Avogadro e la sua
opera scientifica”, Opere scelte di Amedeo Avogadro,
Turin: Accademia delle scienze, pp. i–cxl.
 3

[2] University of Piedmont (unipmn.it) Con sospetto entu-

siasmo, prese parte ai movimenti politici rivoluzionari
del 1821 (contro il re di Sardegna), cosicché due anni
dopo venne rimosso dalla sua posizione (o, come venne
dichiarato ufficialmente, l'università era «lieta di permet-
tere a questo interessante scienziato, di prendere una pausa
di riposo dai pesanti doveri dell'insegnamento, in modo
da essere in grado di dare una migliore attenzione alle
sue ricerche»). Comunque, con il tempo il suo isola-
mento politico venne gradualmente ridotto, in quanto le
idee rivoluzionarie ricevevano una crescente attenzione da
parte di casa Savoia, fino a quando nel 1848 Carlo Alberto
emise una costituzione moderna (lo Statuto Albertino). Ben
prima di ciò (1833), a seguito della crescente attenzione per
i suoi lavori, Avogadro venne richiamato all'Università di
Torino, dove insegnò per altri venti anni.

6 Further reading
• Hinshelwood, C. N.; Pauling, L. (1956), “Amedeo
Avogadro”, Science (Oct 19, 1956) 124 (3225):
708–713, doi:10.1126/science.124.3225.708,
PMID 17757602
• Cavanna, D. (1956), “Centenary of the death of
Amedeo Avogadro”, Minerva farmaceutica (Jun
1956) 5 (6): 134–7, PMID 13369233

• Crosland, M. P. (1970), “Avogadro, Amedeo”,

Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons) 1: 343–350, ISBN 0-684-
10114-9.

• Morselli, Mario. (1984). Amedeo Avogadro, a Sci-

entific Biography. Kluwer. ISBN 90-277-1624-2.
• Review of Morselli’s book: Pierson, S. (1984),
“Avogadro and His Work: Amedeo Avo-
gadro”, Science (Oct 26, 1984) 226 (4673):
432–433, doi:10.1126/science.226.4673.432,
PMID 17799933
4 7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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