Amedeo Avogadro, whose full name is Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro, was an Italian physicist in the late 1700’s, into the middle of the 1800’s. Amedeo’s father, Filippo Avogadro, was a renowned lawyer and a senator in the northern Piedmont areas of Italy. Amedeo graduated from law school in 1792, but did not practice law until he received a doctorate degree for ecclesiastical law, which deals with the laws governing the church. In the year 1800, Amedeo began his studies focusing primarily on mathematics and sciences and eventually used these classes to pursue electrical studies in his early career. In 1804, Amedeo joined a group called “The Academy of Sciences of Turin” in which scientific members gathered to discuss scientific topics…show more content… Avogadro stated, “Equal volumes of all gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules.” This theory was used to further the teachings of a French chemist, Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac. Avogadro’s theory further explained why units of gas may divide during a chemical reaction. Avogadro’s theory was surrounded by confusion and was rejected during his lifetime, despite all attempts he made to get it popularised. The main reasons his theory was rejected was that the difference between a molecule and atoms was not well known, and the people of the time thought atoms of the same kind would repel each other, and the existence of polyatomic ions, was not thought to be in existence. One other big part of his theory stated the heat of a gas at a certain volume was equal to the square root of its attractive power for it’s heat. Avogadro also theorized about the number of molecules, and it led to him determining a number; 6.022140857 times 10 to the 23rd power. This number indicated the number of molecules per gram molecule. While his theories were rejected in his day, they were eventually accepted when one of his successors pushed and taught his theories
