AIR PRESSURE AND THE BIBLE
Anonymous
(Investigator 210, 2023 May)
Anonymous
(Investigator 210, 2023 May)
AIR PRESSURE DISCOVERY
Did the Bible inspire the discovery of air pressure, hence the barometer?
Italian physicist/mathematician Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) is known as the inventor of the barometer. He demonstrated that air exerts pressure, therefore that air has weight, thus helped to overturn the majority view which was that air is weightless.
Some "churchmen", several years prior to Torricelli, also saw that air has weight, and Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) confirmed it several years later:
In Florence, in 1644, Torricelli produced mysteriously a vacant space
at the upper end of a glass tube above a column of mercury after he had
first completely filled the tube with mercury and then set it up with
the lower end—unstoppered—in a basin of mercury. Something similar was
demonstrated a few years earlier to a group of churchmen in Rome and on
both occasions there were individuals present who accepted the
possibility of a vacuum in the tube—against the majority view on this
question—and a further possibility that the surrounding atmosphere had
weight which exerted pressure on the mercury in the basin—although
scientists and philosophers commonly taught that air was weightless.
Father Mersenne who had for many years organized a network of
correspondence on scientific problems between scholars in France,
Italy, England, Germany and Holland, saw Torricelli repeat his
experiment in 1645...
The French were the most excited, and the man who combined a genius for rigorous thinking on the subject with a flair in giving it the maximum publicity was young Blaise Pascal. Between 1646 and 1648 he multiplied experiments which showed that, practically speaking, these 'Torricelli' tubes were empty at the top while the height of the mercury depended both on the weight and pressure of the atmosphere... Pascall's brother-in-law Florian Perier made a famous ascent in September 1648 of the Puy de Dome, 3500 feet above the town of Clermont. He wished to compare the height of the mercury in a tube which he took up the mountain, with the height of mercury in a tube left under observation in the town during the same day. The result fully demonstrated to Pascal the agency of atmospheric pressure... Within the next two years he completed his work (first published in 1663) on 'the equilibrium of fluids' and 'the weight of the mass of the air' which are the basis of modern hydrostatics and aerostatics... (John Stoye, 1969)
The French were the most excited, and the man who combined a genius for rigorous thinking on the subject with a flair in giving it the maximum publicity was young Blaise Pascal. Between 1646 and 1648 he multiplied experiments which showed that, practically speaking, these 'Torricelli' tubes were empty at the top while the height of the mercury depended both on the weight and pressure of the atmosphere... Pascall's brother-in-law Florian Perier made a famous ascent in September 1648 of the Puy de Dome, 3500 feet above the town of Clermont. He wished to compare the height of the mercury in a tube which he took up the mountain, with the height of mercury in a tube left under observation in the town during the same day. The result fully demonstrated to Pascal the agency of atmospheric pressure... Within the next two years he completed his work (first published in 1663) on 'the equilibrium of fluids' and 'the weight of the mass of the air' which are the basis of modern hydrostatics and aerostatics... (John Stoye, 1969)
BIBLICAL COMMENT ON WEIGHT
The Bible refers to balances for weighing things and mentions many objects that were weighed or could be weighed such as bread, various metals and metallic objects, hair, spears, sand, money and stones. Big items such as mountains were known to have weight but could not by human methods be weighed. (Isaiah 40:12)
People could potentially be weighed — "Let me be weighed in a just balance" (Job 31:6). Here "weighed" and "just balance" are figures of speech for judging a person's merit and character objectively and fairly, but the allusion is also to real, physical weight.
The biblical reference to the weight of air, or air pressure, is Job 28:25 which says that God "gave to the wind its weight..." Wind is air in motion, therefore if wind has weight so does air.
DISCUSSION
In "The Origin of Modern Science" (Investigator 170) I described how modern science originated in Christianity and listed about 50 famous scientists of Christian background.
The list was not intended as complete, instead like a sample, and included Pascal but omitted Torricelli.
Torricelli was educated by his uncle who was a Catholic monk and sent Torricelli, at age 18, to university for further studies. He studied with Castelli (1578-1643) who was a priest, a friend of Galileo, and professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa.
Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, author of "Pascal's Wager" for choosing belief in God, and one of the first two inventers of the mechanical calculator. He was also a Catholic theologian. He experienced, in November 1654, a vision which convinced him that God was real and present.
In the 17th century many Bible-believing scientists were associated with organizations founded to promote experimental investigations and knowledge.
These organizations included:
• The Royal Society of London for Promoting Natural
Knowledge was founded in 1660. It was preceded between 1649 and
1658 by a group, headed by John Wilkins, that gathered in Oxford to do
"inquisitive experiments".
• In France the Academie des Sciences was founded in1666 in Paris.
• In France the Academie des Sciences was founded in1666 in Paris.
Groups of experimentalists also functioned in Italy from 1657, Holland from 1664, and Denmark from 1673, and in other countries of Europe.
Modern science in turn led to the prosperity, ample food, health, longevity, communications and knowledge currently enjoyed worldwide, contributing to the fulfillment of Jesus' prediction that his followers would do greater deeds than he did. (John 14:12)
Modern science also made it possible to investigate the accuracy of the Bible because scientific discoveries are an objective measure or standard by which to judge its claims. That's what I do — I search out biblical statements that can be checked or tested and investigate them by consulting the scientific literature.
Perhaps that's how the discovery that air has weight proceeded originally — the discoverers, being Bible believers, knew about Job 28:25 and tested it. However, this is only one of hundreds of Bible-supporting discoveries made by science in recent centuries.
REFERENCES:
Origin of Modern Science, Investigator Magazine #170, September 2016, pp 35-44
Stoye, J. 1969, Europe Unfolding 1648-1688, Collins, pp 242-243
http://thefundidriveby.blogspot.com/2007/11/air-pressure-in-bible.html
https://catholicscientists.org/scientists-of-the-past-evangelista-torricelli/
https://catholicscientists.org/scientists-of-the-past-benedetto-castelli/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal
https://evengelistatorricelli.weebly.com/historical-report.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelista_Torricelli
https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/pressure.htm