Antoine Lavoisier

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (also Antoine Lavoisier after the French Revolution; French pronunciation: ​[ɑ̃twan lɔʁɑ̃ də lavwazje]; 26 August 1743 – 8 May 1794;) was a French nobleman and chemist central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and had a large influence on both the history of chemistry and the history of biology. He is widely considered in popular literature as the "father of modern chemistry". This label, however, is more a product of Lavoisier's eminent skill as a self-promoter and underplays his dependence on the instruments, experiments, and ideas of other chemists.

It is generally accepted that Lavoisier's great accomplishments in chemistry largely stem from his changing the science from a qualitative to a quantitative one. Lavoisier is most noted for his discovery of the role oxygen plays in combustion. He recognized and named oxygen (1778) and hydrogen (1783) and opposed the phlogiston theory. Lavoisier helped construct the metric system, wrote the first extensive list of elements, and helped to reform chemical nomenclature. He predicted the existence of silicon (1787) and was also the first to establish that sulfur was an element (1777) rather than a compound. He discovered that, although matter may change its form or shape, its mass always remains the same.

Lavoisier (disambiguation)

Lavoisier may refer to:

People with the surname Lavoisier:

Lavoisier (crater)

Lavoisier is a lunar crater that is located near the northwestern limb of the Moon, at the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum. It is located to the southwest of the crater von Braun and southeast of Bunsen. Due south of Lavoisier is the disintegrated crater Ulugh Beigh.

This is a worn crater formation with several small craters attached to the exterior of the rim. Lavoisier F is a distorted crater that shares a common rim along the southeastern side of Lavoisier. The southern rim is extended outward, and is overlaid by the small crater Lavoisier W. Lavoisier S is a worn crater that is attached to the northwestern rim. There are also a pair of small craters along the outer eastern rim. A small crater has incised a short section along the northern rim.

The interior of this floor-fractured crater is notable for the curving ridge that parallels the northwestern inner wall. The remainder of this circular form can be traced out across the interior by an intermittent pattern of lower-albedo surface that is concentric with the inner wall. There are also several rilles marking the interior surface, particularly along the outer edges. In the northern center of the floor is a triplet of small craterlets. Several other tiny craters mark the interior surface.