Gasparo Berti facts for kids
Gasparo Berti (around 1600–1643) was an Italian scientist. He was a mathematician, an astronomer, and a physicist. Berti was likely born in Mantua and lived most of his life in Rome. He is best known for an experiment he did. In this experiment, he accidentally made the first working barometer. A barometer is a tool that measures air pressure.
Contents
Berti's Scientific Discoveries
Why Water Doesn't Go Up Forever
In 1630, a scientist named Giovanni Battista Baliani wrote to Galileo Galilei. Baliani had a problem with his siphon. A siphon is a tube used to move liquid from a higher level to a lower one. He noticed his siphon could not lift water higher than about 10 meters (34 feet). Galileo thought that a vacuum was holding the water up. He believed this vacuum could not hold any more water. Back then, many people argued about whether vacuums could even exist.
Berti's Famous Vacuum Experiment
Galileo's ideas about vacuums reached Rome in 1638. Two physicists, Gasparo Berti and Father Raffaello Magiotti, wanted to test these ideas. Magiotti came up with an experiment. We don't know the exact date, but it happened between 1639 and 1643. Other scientists like Athanasius Kircher and Niccolò Zucchi were probably there too.
Berti built a very tall tube, about 11 meters (36 feet) long. It was made of lead. He filled the tube with water and sealed both ends. Then, he put one end into a basin of water and unsealed it. Some water flowed out of the tube. But a lot of water stayed inside, filling the tube to about 10 meters (34 feet) above the water in the basin. This was the same height Baliani had seen with his siphon.
The most important part of this experiment was the empty space left at the top of the tube. As the water level dropped, no air could get into this space. Berti said this space was a vacuum. Many people disagreed with him. They did other experiments to try and prove that vacuums didn't exist. Berti's experiment was very important. It led Evangelista Torricelli to study the weight of air. This research helped Torricelli invent the barometer.
Berti's Work in Mathematics
Gasparo Berti was also a professor of mathematics. He was supposed to teach at the University of Rome La Sapienza. He would have taken over from Benedetto Castelli. Sadly, Berti died before he could start teaching there. He also helped map the old Roman catacombs.
