Edme Mariotte

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Founding members of the Academy in 1666, by Henry Testelin; Mariotte probably 6th v. right
Mariottean tube
Moon crater Mariotte

Edme Mariotte (* around 1620 probably in Dijon ; † May 12, 1684 in Paris ) was a French physicist. He published his works under the name Edme Mariotte de Chazeuil , which gives an indication of his place of birth.

biography

Mariotte was initially a Catholic clergyman in Dijon, where he probably worked as the prior of St. Martin sous-Beaume. He was a founding member of the Academy of Sciences , to which he was appointed by Colbert in 1666 . Mariotte lived in Paris and worked on problems with liquids and gases .

Among other things, Mariotte dealt with the question of where the rings come from that you see when you look at the moon or stars. This prompted him to investigate animal eyes. In doing so, he discovered the blind spot . He exchanged letters with Pecquet about the function of the eye , in which, among other things, the function of the retina was controversially discussed. These letters were summarized in a book and published in 1668 under the title Nouvelle découverte touchant la veüe .

Although discovered by Boyle , Mariotte proved that gases, including air, can be compressed. Without knowing the physical relationships more precisely, he constructed an experimental setup , the Mariottsche tube , which encloses air in a curved glass tube. The height of the air column in the closed part of the tube can be changed by adding mercury. From this knowledge he formulated the Boyle-Mariotte law named after both researchers . Mariotte also used the tube as a manometer in studies of air pressure at different altitudes. Another invention that is also related to atmospheric pressure is the Mariotte bottle .

Mariotte was the first to suspect in 1679 that plants produce their own food through a chemical process, i.e. not, as Aristotle taught, get their food entirely from the earth.

In his work Traitte de la percussion ou chocq des corps , Mariotte first described the shot put pendulum and thus created the basis for the law of conservation of momentum formulated by Newton .

In addition to correspondence with Pecquet, Mariotte corresponded with Leibniz . He also designed the water supply network for the Palace of Versailles .

In 1666, the year it was founded, he became a member of the Académie royale des sciences . The moon crater Mariotte is named after him.

Fonts (selection)

  • Essay de Logique, contenant les Prinzipes , 1678
  • Essays de physique, ou memoires pour servir à la science des choses naturelles , 4 volumes, 1679–1681
  • Premier essay de la vegetation des Plantes , 1679
  • Traitté de la percussion ou chocq des corps , 1673
  • Posthumous: Traité du mouvement des eaux et autres corps fluides divisé en V parties , 1686

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux digitalisat , accessed on April 8, 2016.
  2. ↑ Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences Digitized , page XIII, accessed on April 8, 2016
  3. ^ Nouvelle découverte touchant la veüe digitized version , accessed on April 11, 2016.
  4. ↑ Handbook on the History of Natural Sciences and Technology Digitized , accessed on April 8, 2016.
  5. ↑ Plant nutrition: First volume digitized page 4, accessed April 14, 2016
  6. ↑ The famous Herr Leibniz: a digitized biography , accessed on April 8, 2016.
  7. ↑ History of mechanical principles: and their most important applications Digitized version , accessed on April 8, 2016
  8. ↑ History of Structural Analysis: In Search of Balance Digitized , accessed on April 8, 2016
  9. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter M. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 19, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Mariotte, Edme
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French physicist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1620
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Dijon
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1684
Place of death Paris