Every time people turn on the TV or iPhone and listen to a meteorologist forecast rain, snow or sun, one man born over 400 years ago is responsible for the science of predicting the weather and even the birth of meteorology. His name is Evangelista Torricelli, an Italian scientist and mathematician. In 1643, he invented perhaps one of the most important devices in predicting weather: the barometer. This instrument measures atmospheric pressure, and is used in forecasting the weather and determining altitude. In general, when the barometer falls in response to a drop in pressure, bad weather is approaching; when the barometer rises because of an increase in pressure, good weather will follow.
Torricelli was born on October 15, 1608 in Faenza, Italy and very little is known of his early life. His education was
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supervised by his uncle who enrolled him in Jesuit schools in his native Faenza which was near Ravenna.
Due to his brilliance as a physicist and mathematician he was sent to Rome at the age of twenty to study under Benedetto Castelli who was a student of Galileo. He spent the next ten years studying. In 1641 Torricelli wrote De motu gravium, in which he developed some of Galileo ideas on projectile motion. He experimentally verified many new conclusions and stated what is today known as Torricelli's law--a rigid system of bodies can move spontaneously on Earth's surface only if its center of gravity descends. Useful theorems of external ballistics followed, as well as artillery firing tables. He also propounded a fundamental hydrodynamic theorem that bears his name--the efflux velocity of a jet of liquid exiting a small orifice equals the velocity of a single drop of liquid falling freely in a vacuum from the same height as the liquid level at the orifice. He was introduced to Galileo through Castelli who showed Galileo his work. This was also a period in history when scientific discoveries clashed with
religious beliefs. It was the time of the Inquisition and Galileo was under house arrest because he said that the earth revolved around the sun and the bible said the sun stood still. During this time Torricelli studied with Galileo who was impressed with his mathematical ability and he eventually became his secretary and assistant. After Galileo’s death he was appointed to his post of court mathematician and professor of mathematics at the Florentine Academy. As a scientist Torricelli became well known for his study of the motion of fluids and was declared the father of hydrodynamics by Ernst Mach. Torricelli also conducted experiments on what we now call gases, though the term was not then in use. Torricelli is best known for the invention of the barometer. At this time Galileo was trying to prove or disprove the Aristotelian assertion that no vacuum could exist in nature. Torricelli carried out an experiment designed to prove or disprove Aristotle’s statement. Following a suggestion by Galileo to use mercury, he filled a glass tube 4 ft long with mercury and inverted the tube into a dish. He observed that some of the mercury did not flow out and that the space above the mercury in the tube was a vacuum. This proved Aristotle right in the sense that vacuums must be created because there are no natural ones. He published his second book, De Sphaera, that same year. After much observation, he concluded that the variation of the height of the mercury from day to day was caused by changes in atmospheric pressure. Evangelista Torricelli became the first scientist to create a sustained vacuum and to discover the principle of a barometer. Torricelli built the first mercury barometer around 1644.To this day, the vacuum above the mercury in a barometer is known as a Torricellian vacuum, while the unit of pressure involved is still called a “torr”. The barometer was such an important invention that some years later Vincenzo Antinoti stated that just as the telescope had transformed astronomy; Torricelli’s invention of the barometer had changed Physics. He also made a contribution to meteorology with his discovery that wind was not caused by the “exhalations” of vapors from a damp earth, but by differences in the density of air that in turn , were caused by differences in the air temperature. Torricelli was also active in the improvement of the telescope, an instrument that had first been used in astronomy by Galileo. Torricelli was able to grind lenses with such accuracy that he was able to produce some of the finest telescopes of his day. He also had great mathematical talent. He proved that the flow of liquid through an opening is proportional to the square root of the height of the liquid, a theory that is now known as Torricelli’s theorem. He found the length of the arc of a cycloid, which is the curve that is traced by a point on the circumference of a rotating circle. In other mathematical areas, he determined the point in the plane of a triangle where the sum of its distances from the vertices is the smallest. This is also known as the isogonic center. In 1644 he published a book about his studies in projectile motion, entitled Opera Geometrica .This book came to be known throughout Europe for its clear concise explanation of many aspects of geometry. Torricelli's investigations in mathematics played an important role in scientific history as well. Based on Francesco Cavalieri's " geometry of indivisibles," Torricelli worked out equations upon curves, solids, and their rotations, helping to bridge the gap between Greek geometry and calculus. Torricelli also made significant contributions to the development of the calculus--a subject he possibly would have invented if he had lived long enough. He developed important results on maxima and minima, used infinitesimal methods to complete the first modern rectification of a curve (1645), and produced what is perhaps the first graph of a logarithmic function (1647). Along with the work of Rene Descartes, Pierre de Fermat, Gilles Personne de Roberval, and others, these works enabled Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to give calculus its first complete formulation. Evangelista Torricelli spent his last days working and teaching that attracted scientists from all over Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Torricelli died October 25, 1647 in Florence, Italy at the age of 39. Evangelista Torricelli was an Italian physicist and mathematician who invented the barometer and who was a mathematical genius. His work in geometry led to the development of integral calculus
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