Magdeburg hemispheres

Common card · No. 444320

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, 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. Sound did not transmit through the sphere, indicating that sound needed a medium in order to travel and/or be sensed, while light did not. The first artificial vacuum had been produced a few years earlier by Evangelista Torricelli and inspired...

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