Boil erm…Boyle’s Law Some of the earliest quantitative measurements were performed on gases. Robert Boyle conducted one early study in 1662. Robert Boyle used a J-shaped piece of glass tubing that was sealed on one end. A gas was trapped in the sealed end of the tube and unstable amounts of mercury were added to the J-shaped tube to vary the pressure of the system. Boyle scientifically varied the pressure and measured the volume of the gas. These measurements were performed using a fixed amount of gas and a constant temperature. In this way Boyle was able to examine the pressure-volume relationship without complications from other factors such as changes in temperature or amount of gas. Boyle’s law states that at constant temperature for a fixed mass, the absolute pressure and the volume of a gas are contrarily proportional. The law can also be stated in a slightly different manner, that the product of absolute pressure and volume is always constant. Most gases behave like ideal gases at moderate pressures and temperatures. The mathematical equation for Boyle's law is: PV= k, where p denotes the pressure of the system. V denotes the volume of the gas and k is a constant value representative of the pressure and volume of the system. So long as temperature remains constant the same amount of energy given to the system persists throughout its operation and therefore, theoretically, the value of k will remain constant. However, due to the derivation of pressure as perpendicular applied force and the probabilistic likelihood of collisions with other particles through collision theory, the application of force to a surface may not be infinitely constant for such values of k, but will have a limit when differentiating such values over a. Forcing the volume V of the fixed quantity of gas to increase, keeping the gas at the original measured