Article
Article
Boyle's law
Article By:
Rockett, Frank H. Engineering Consultant, Charlottesville, Virginia.
Last reviewed:April 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.092900
A law of gases which states that at constant temperature the volume of a gas varies inversely with its pressure. This law, formulated by Robert Boyle (1627–1691), can also be stated thus: The product of the volume of a gas times the pressure exerted on it is a constant at a fixed temperature; that is; PV = k, where P is the pressure, V the volume, and k is a constant.. The relation is approximately true for most gases, but is not followed at high pressures. The phenomenon was discovered independently by Edme Mariotte about 1650 and is also known as the Boyle–Mariotte law, or Mariotte's law. See also: Gas; Kinetic theory of matter
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