The Magdeburg Hemispheres - the famous experiment of the German physicist Otto von Guericke to demonstrate the force of air pressure and the air pump invented by him.
In the experiment, "two copper hemispheres about 14 inches (35.5 cm) in diameter, hollow inside and pressed together" were used. Air was pumped out of the collected sphere, and the hemispheres were kept by the pressure of the external atmosphere .
In 1654 in Regensburg, von Guericke demonstrated the experiment to the Reichstag in the presence of the Emperor Ferdinand III . After pumping out of the air sphere, 16 horses, 8 on each side, could not break the hemisphere. It is not known whether horses were used on both sides for greater entertainment or because of the ignorance of the physicist himself, because it was possible to replace half of the horses with a fixed mount, without losing the force of influence on the hemisphere [1] .
In 1656, Gericke repeated the experiment in Magdeburg , and in 1663 - in Berlin with 24 horses.
The original hemispheres are kept in the German Museum ( German Deutsches Museum ) in Munich .
Notes
- ↑ Ya. I. Perelman, Entertaining mechanics, p. 25-26
Links
- Magdeburg Hemispheres // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1890-1907.