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Amedeo Avogadro was an Italian scientist, living in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, who is best known for his hypothesis that equal volumes of gases, at a given temperature, contain the same number of molecules.
Life and Career
Amedeo Avogadro, the Conte de Quaregna, was born in Turin, Italy, on 9 June 1776. He trained as a lawyer and then studied physics and mathematics privately before dedicating himself completely to science. He was the first person to distinguish between the atoms and molecules of a substance. He was made professor of natural philosophy at the College of Vercelli in 1809, and then of mathematics at the Academy of Turin in 1820. He remained in Turin until his death on 9 July 1856. He is remembered chiefly for Avogadro’s hypothesis, which is an important part of the atomic theory, and the Avogadro number, named for him.
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1994-95, 1997-98 Dorling Kindersley