Torricelli, Evangelista

Lead Author: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Article Topic: Natural sciences
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Peter Saundry (other articles)
Last Updated: February 12, 2007

Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) was an Italian physicist and mathematician who was a colleague of Galileo. He is known for inventing the barometer in 1643. His work in geometry aided in the eventual development of integral calculus. Following a suggestion by Galileo, he filled a 4 ft long glass tube with mercury and inverted the tube into a dish. Upon doing so, he correctly recognized the fact that the height of the mercury was only 1/14 that of a water barometer, thus proving that mercury is fourteen times as dense as water. He also noticed that the level of mercury varied from day to day and observed that the space above the mercury in the barometer must contain a vacuum.

Citation
Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2007. "Torricelli, Evangelista." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [Published in the Encyclopedia of Earth February 12, 2007; Retrieved July 4, 2008]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Torricelli,_Evangelista>
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