Week 7: Avogadro’s number…

Avogadro had an interest in math and physics and combined those interests when he became the first chair of mathematical physics at the University of Turin.
In 1811 Avogadro published an article that proposed his famous hypothesis, and drew the distinction between the molecule and the atom, which pointed out that Dalton had confused the two. In what is now known as Avogadro’s Principle, he hypothesized that equal volumes of gases, at the same temperature and pressure, contain equal numbers of molecules.

In the example shown in the link testing Avogadro’s hypothesis, we see that there are two volumes of Hydrogen and one volume of Oxygen, which produce 2 volumes of water molecules. Further, we notice that each container has the same number of molecules in it to begin with. So, we can conclude that the ratio is 2 hydrogen to 1 oxygen and we end up with 2 volumes of water molecules, and nothing left over.