1. Boyle held these two names because as he started becoming interested in the sciences, he searched for the same ends as the alchemists had (immortality, transfiguration). But as he aged and discovered more, he began working to figure out natural laws, such as those of gravity and matter.
2. One of Boyle’s most significant early discoveries was his reassertion of the notion that the world is made up of small particles that can be combined in different was to create everything. This then led to his discovery that all metals burn a different color. This helped greatly in the definition and classification of elements.
3. Boyle’s Law describes that if you have a gas at a set temperature, and you increase by two times the pressure put upon it, you will reduce the volume of the gas by half. This also works in that if you decrease by half the pressure put upon the same gas at the same temperature, you will double the volume of the gas.
4. Boyle’s Law first put forth the notion that the universe is run by a set of laws that can be defined and recorded. This would then make it easier to study the world as it would set some limits to what it could do and would lend a certain amount of certainty to records and observations made.
5. Theories proved correct:
The world is made of small building blocks
At a certain point, these can no longer be broken down
Air is a physical object
Sound could not travel in a vacuum
Theories proved incorrect:
There are four building blocks: earth, air, fire, and water
Air has no weight
Vacuums cannot exist
