Portal:Chemistry/Selected biography/1

Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856) was an Italian chemist, most noted for his contributions to the theory of molarity and molecular mass. Avogadro's law implies that the relationship occurring between the weights of same volumes of different gases (at the same temperature and pressure) corresponds to the relationship between respective molecular weights. Hence, relative molecular masses can be calculated from the masses of gas samples. One of the most important contributions of Avogadro's work was clearly distinguishing atoms from molecules, admitting that simple particles too could be composed of molecules, and that these are composed of atoms.