Pair of copper hemispheres designed to demonstrate the power of atmospheric pressure
The Magdeburg hemispheres are a pair of large copper hemispheres with mating rims that were used in a famous 1654 experiment to demonstrate the power of atmospheric pressure. When the rims were sealed with grease and the air was pumped out, the sphere contained a vacuum and could not be pulled apart by teams of horses. Once the valve was opened, air rushed in and the hemispheres were easily separated. The Magdeburg hemispheres were invented by German scientist and mayor of Magdeburg,[1] Otto von Guericke, to demonstrate the air pump that he had invented and the concept of atmospheric pressure.
Speculation varied about the contents of the sphere. Many thought it was simply empty, while others argued the vacuum contained air or some finer aerial substance drawn from the mercury. Sound did not transmit through the sphere, indicating that sound needed a medium in order to be heard, while light did not.[2]
The first artificial vacuum had been produced a few years earlier by Evangelista Torricelli and inspired Guericke to design the world's first vacuum pump, which consisted of a piston and cylinder with one-way flap valves. The hemispheres became popular in physics lectures as an illustration of the strength of air pressure, and are still used in education. The original hemispheres are on display in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Aside from its scientific importance, the experiment served to prove the recovery of the city of Magdeburg, which only two decades earlier had undergone the Sack of Magdeburg - considered the worst atrocity of the Thirty Years' War - when 20,000 of its inhabitants were massacred, and only 4,000 remained at the end of the war in 1648. Von Guericke was concerned with both aspects of the experiment, in his double capacity as a leading scientist and as the mayor who worked tirelessly to restore the city's wealth.
^"Guericke, Otto von". Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th Ed. Vol. 12. Cambridge Univ. Press. 1910. p. 670.
^Principe, Lawrence M., 'Introduction', The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions ( Oxford , 2011; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Sept. 2013), https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199567416.003.0001, accessed 4 Sept.
and 28 Related for: Magdeburg hemispheres information
The Magdeburghemispheres are a pair of large copper hemispheres with mating rims that were used in a famous 1654 experiment to demonstrate the power of...
is Otto von Guericke, famous for his experiments with the Magdeburghemispheres. Magdeburg has experienced three major devastations in its history. In...
Roman Empire. He built a vacuum pump, pumped air out of two joined Magdeburghemispheres, attached a team of horses to each side, and had them pull. He demonstrated...
the world's first vacuum pump and demonstrated a vacuum using his Magdeburghemispheres. Guericke was driven to make a vacuum in order to disprove Aristotle's...
atmospheric pressure and the effectiveness of his vacuum pump, using the Magdeburghemispheres, before Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Imperial Diet...
has media related to Suction cups. Airlock Horror vacui (physics) Magdeburghemispheres Self-sealing suction cup ""Suction Cup" m-w.com". Merriam Webster:...
theory of motion. Magdeburghemispheres (1654): Otto von Guericke demonstrates atmospheric pressure using a pair of hollow copper hemisphere. Spring of air...
further developed by German scientist Otto von Guericke with his Magdeburghemispheres. Guerike's demonstration was documented by Gaspar Schott, in a book...
the force of atmospheric pressure by Otto von Guericke using the Magdeburghemispheres in 1656, laboratory experiments by Denis Papin, who built experimental...
he conducted his famous Magdeburghemispheres experiment, showing that teams of horses could not separate two hemispheres from which the air had been...
and conducted his famous Magdeburghemispheres experiment, showing that, owing to atmospheric pressure outside the hemispheres, teams of horses could not...
and cork, and close to the man seated to the right is a pair of Magdeburghemispheres, which would have been used with the air pump to demonstrate the...
in Magdeburg, Germany, where he was mayor. Two copper hemispheres were fitted together and air was pumped out. Weights strapped to the hemispheres could...
1686 – Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor of the MagdeburgHemispheres (b. 1602) 1690 – John Eliot, English-American minister and missionary...
Hans Lippershey 1650: First vacuum pump by Otto von Guericke 1654: Magdeburghemispheres by Otto von Guericke 1663: First electrostatic generator by Otto...
world's first vacuum pump to create a vacuum as demonstrated in the Magdeburghemispheres experiment. He was driven to make a vacuum to disprove Aristotle's...
famous for demonstrating the power of atmospheric pressure with the Magdeburghemispheres Elisabeth of the Palatinate, philosopher, critic of René Descartes'...
Air pumps (1670–1730) and demonstration devices, notably several Magdeburghemispheres, were made to explore the properties of the newly discovered vacuum...
his vacuum pump and the power of atmospheric pressure using the Magdeburghemispheres before Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, in Regensburg. December...
May 11 – Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor of the MagdeburgHemispheres (b. 1602) May 29 – Ove Juul, Governor-General of Norway (b. 1615)...
atmospheric pressure and the effectiveness of his vacuum pump, using the Magdeburghemispheres, before Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Imperial Diet...
ship”. Encouraged by the experiments of Otto von Guericke with the Magdeburghemispheres, in 1663 Lana de Terzi developed an idea for a lighter than air...
May 11 – Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor of the MagdeburgHemispheres (b. 1602) May 29 – Ove Juul, Governor-General of Norway (b. 1615)...
reconstructed MagdeburgHemispheres in a demonstration on Great Torrington common. The demonstration used 16 shire horses and 24-inch-diameter hemispheres. On rare...