Boyle's law (sometimes referred to as the BoyleMariotte law, or Mariotte's law[1]) is an

experimental gas law which describes how the pressure of a gas tends to decrease as the volume
of a gas increases. A modern statement of Boyle's law is:
The absolute pressure exerted by a given mass of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to the
volume it occupies if the temperature and amount of gas remain unchanged within a closed
system.[2][3]
Mathematically, Boyle's law can be stated as

or

where P is the pressure of the gas, V is the volume of the gas, and k is a constant.
The equation states that product of pressure and volume is a constant for a given mass of
confined gas as long as the temperature is constant. For comparing the same substance under two
different sets of condition, the law can be usefully expressed as

The equation shows that, as volume increases, the pressure of the gas decreases in proportion.
Similarly, as volume decreases, the pressure of the gas increases. The law was named after
chemist and physicist Robert Boyle, who published the original law in 1662.

Relation to kinetic theory and ideal gases

Boyles law states that at constant temperature for a fixed mass, the absolute pressure and the
volume of a gas are inversely proportional. The law can also be stated in a slightly different
manner, that the product of absolute pressure and volume is always constant.
Most gases behave like ideal gases at moderate pressures and temperatures. The technology of
the 17th century could not produce high pressures or low temperatures. Hence, the law was not
likely to have deviations at the time of publication. As improvements in technology permitted
higher pressures and lower temperatures, deviations from the ideal gas behavior became
noticeable, and the relationship between pressure and volume can only be accurately described
employing real gas theory.[12] The deviation is expressed as the compressibility factor.
Boyle (and Mariotte) derived the law solely on experimental grounds. The law can also be
derived theoretically based on the presumed existence of atoms and molecules and assumptions

about motion and perfectly elastic collisions (see kinetic theory of gases). These assumptions
were met with enormous resistance in the positivist scientific community at the time however, as
they were seen as purely theoretical constructs for which there was not the slightest observational
evidence.
Daniel Bernoulli in 1737-1738 derived Boyle's law using Newton's laws of motion with
application on a molecular level. It remained ignored until around 1845, when John Waterston
published a paper building the main precepts of kinetic theory; this was rejected by the Royal
Society of England. Later works of James Prescott Joule, Rudolf Clausius and in particular
Ludwig Boltzmann firmly established the kinetic theory of gases and brought attention to both
the theories of Bernoulli and Waterston.[13]
The debate between proponents of Energetics and Atomism led Boltzmann to write a book in
1898, which endured criticism up to his suicide in 1906.[13] Albert Einstein in 1905 showed how
kinetic theory applies to the Brownian motion of a fluid-suspended particle, which was
confirmed in 1908 by Jean Perrin.[13]

Final!

Relation to absolute zero

Charles's law appears to imply that the volume of a gas will descend to zero at a certain
temperature (266.66 C according to Gay-Lussac's figures) or 273 C. Gay-Lussac was clear
in his description that the law was not applicable at low temperatures:
but I may mention that this last conclusion cannot be true except so long as the compressed
vapors remain entirely in the elastic state; and this requires that their temperature shall be
sufficiently elevated to enable them to resist the pressure which tends to make them assume the
liquid state.[2]
Gay-Lussac had no experience of liquid air (first prepared in 1877), although he appears to
believe (as did Dalton) that the "permanent gases" such as air and hydrogen could be liquified.
Gay-Lussac had also worked with the vapours of volatile liquids in demonstrating Charles's law,
and was aware that the law does not apply just above the boiling point of the liquid:
I may however remark that when the temperature of the ether is only a little above its boiling
point, its condensation is a little more rapid than that of atmospheric air. This fact is related to a
phenomenon which is exhibited by a great many bodies when passing from the liquid to the solid
state, but which is no longer sensible at temperatures a few degrees above that at which the
transition occurs.[2]

The first mention of a temperature at which the volume of a gas might descend to zero was by
William Thomson (later known as Lord Kelvin) in 1848:[7]
This is what we might anticipate, when we reflect that infinite cold must correspond to a finite
number of degrees of the air-thermometer below zero; since if we push the strict principle of
graduation, stated above, sufficiently far, we should arrive at a point corresponding to the volume
of air being reduced to nothing, which would be marked as 273 of the scale (100/.366, if .366
be the coefficient of expansion); and therefore 273 of the air-thermometer is a point which
cannot be reached at any finite temperature, however low.
However, the "absolute zero" on the Kelvin temperature scale was originally defined in terms of
the second law of thermodynamics, which Thomson himself described in 1852.[8] Thomson did
not assume that this was equal to the "zero-volume point" of Charles's law, merely that Charles's
law provided the minimum temperature which could be attained. The two can be shown to be
equivalent by Ludwig Boltzmann's statistical view of entropy (1870).

Relation to kinetic theory

The kinetic theory of gases relates the macroscopic properties of gases, such as pressure and
volume, to the microscopic properties of the molecules which make up the gas, particularly the
mass and speed of the molecules. In order to derive Charles's law from kinetic theory, it is
necessary to have a microscopic definition of temperature: this can be conveniently taken as the
temperature being proportional to the average kinetic energy of the gas molecules, Ek:

Under this definition, the demonstration of Charles's law is almost trivial. The kinetic theory
equivalent of the ideal gas law relates pV to the average kinetic energy:

Charles' law (also known as the law of volumes) is an experimental gas law which describes
how gases tend to expand when heated. A modern statement of Charles's law is:
When the pressure on a sample of a dry gas is held constant, the Kelvin temperature and the
volume will be directly related. [1]
this directly proportional relationship can be written as:

or

where:
V is the volume of the gas
T is the temperature of the gas (measured in Kelvin).
k is a constant.
This law describes how a gas expands as the temperature increases; conversely, a decrease in
temperature will lead to a decrease in volume. For comparing the same substance under two
different sets of conditions, the law can be written as:

The equation shows that, as absolute temperature increases, the volume of the gas also increases
in proportion. The law was named after scientist Jacques Charles, who formulated the original
law in his unpublished work from the 1780s.