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Amadeo Avagadro (Lorenze Romano Amedeo Carlo Avagadro, conte di Quaregna e Cerreto) was born on August 9, 1776 in Turin, Italy to his father Filippo, a magistrate and senator, and his mother Anna Vercellone, a noblewoman of noblewoman. Avagadro married Felicita Mazzé in 1818 when Avogadro was aged 42 and raised a family with six sons.

Avogadro had initially started going to law school after his father's request and tradition, but soon after he was inspired to pursue a new path and committed his life to mathematics, physics, and chemistry. After finishing with a doctorate of ecclesiastical law in 1796, he privately began studying physics, and in 1806 he began teaching science and mathematics at the Academy of Sciences of Turin. Three years later he became a professor at the Royal College of Vercelli, but because of civil unrest the university was shut down and forced Avogadro to lose his chair position, only to regain his chair back in 1834. Avogadro died on July 9, 1856.

Scientific Contributions

Avagadro worked very closely with John Dalton and Joseph Gay-Lussac in researching the different properties of atoms, and throughout the early 1800s they performed experiments that led them to interesting conclusions, such as proving that a water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, instead of the proposed singular hydrogen and oxygen atom.

Avagadro's Law

in 1811, Avagadro published his first scientific paper on the properties of molecules in the French Journal Journal de Physique. This publication attempts to explain Lussac's observation when he combined 2 liters of hydrogen gas and 1 liter of oxygen gas to produce 1 liter of gaseous water. It explains that equal volumes of all gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules. The reason why Lussac's experiment produced those results is because the number of molecules decreases as the chemical reaction takes place between hyrogen and oxygen gases. This statement will become known as Avagadro's Law. Because of this, he was one of the first scientists recognize that elements can exist as molecules instead of strictly the atom.

Reception

Despite Avagadro's (correct) interpretation of molecules and their properties, his work was not widely durring his lifetime. His work largely conflicted with more well known scientists at that time, such as Dalton and Jöns Jacob Berzelius, and was only accepted 4 years after his death in 1856, when a scientist named Stanislao Cannizzaro brought Avagadro's law to light explaining recurring exceptions that occurr at certain temperatures.

Avagadro's Constant

Avagadro's constant, 6.02214129 x 10^23, was never calculated by Avagadro himself, but because Avagadro is eventually given the title of the founder of the atomic-molecular theory, the constant required for mole-atom conversion was named after Avagadro in 1911 by nobel prize winner Johann Josef Loschmidt.