A 17th-century mayor used a team of sixteen horses to prove that vacuums exist
To demonstrate the immense power of atmospheric pressure, a 17th-century scientist used two teams of horses to try and pull apart a vacuum.
In 1663, Otto von Guericke, the mayor of Magdeburg, conducted a famous experiment using two hollow bronze hemispheres. After pumping the air out to create a vacuum inside, he hitched sixteen horses to the spheres, but they were unable to pull them apart against the weight of the outside atmosphere.
There's more to this story — open the app to keep reading.
Continue Reading in App
1 more paragraphs · plus a 3-question quiz