Edme Mariotte

Œuvres de M. Mariotte (1717).

Edme Mariotte (Dijon, 1620 - Paris, May 12, 1684) was a French abbot, physicist and chemist.

He studied the compression of gases and came to discover the law today known as the Boyle-Mariotte law: At constant temperature, the volume of a gas is proportional to the inverse of the pressure . In other words, the product of the pressure by the volume is constant when the temperature does not vary. Today it is known that this product is also proportional to the absolute temperature, expressed in kelvin.

Both scientists Robert Boyle and Mariotte separately in two different places, independently, arrived at the same law. As a curiosity, Boyle in his writings did not specify that the temperature had to be constant for the law to be valid, surely he carried out his experiments and would take it for granted. Mariotte did specify this constancy .

Edme Mariotte was a pioneer of experimental physics and professor of physics in 1654-1658, and one of the founders of this domain in France. He also studied optics, elastic deformations of solids, and hydrodynamics.

Eponymy

• Boyle-Mariotte's law bears its name.
• The lunar crater Mariotte bears this name in his memory.
• The asteroid (11968) Demariotte also commemorates its name.