portions to volumes. He came up with the 5% rule which says that “the first and last of these proportions differ only slightly from 100:50 and 100:200" (11).Gay-Lussac does another experiment. He reacts 100 volumes of nitrous gas with potasium(11) and he finds that the volume of the gas decreases by 50%. Next, John Dalton, a great scientist, criticized the accuracy of Gay-Lussac's work. He said that the volumes did not occur in simple whole number ratio, which went against what Gay-Lussac's Law(7). Dalton could not see how the same proportions could apply to combining volumes(12). Avogadro, another scientst, said that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of particles. In the end, Dalton accepted the Law of Combining Volumes. (14). The stubborn blindness of Dalton and Berzelius and Gay-Lussac is a clear example of a common pitfall in the practice of science. Roger Bacon might have recognized it as the third "Cause of Error": popular prejudice(2), but it also has elements of Bacon's first cause of error, namely, submission to faulty and unworthy authority. We see that science has the pitfalls of human frailty as well as beauty and nobility. Gay-Lussac made many advances in the field of science. He made advances in industrial chemistry; in the field of analytical chemistry by improving the methods of analyzing gas mixtures, he studied acids and iodine, and he isolated cyanogen. He improved methods of isolating alkali metals, showed chlorine to be an element, and isolated boron. He is also know for his work with gases. He discovered that a gas at constant pressure expands, for each degree of temperature. Also, he discovered the Law of Combining Volumes. In conclusion, he was not only an outstanding scientist, but a very educated and well-respected man.References1. Asimov, I., The Search for the Elements, Fawcett World Library, N.Y. 1962, pp.64 -- 65. 2. Bacon, R., Opus Majus, 1266, trans...
