Berlioz and the freezing of boiling water

Gaëlle Loisel (1, 2) , Jean-François Le Maréchal (3)

1 LIRE - Littérature, idéologies, représentations, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles
2 CEP EA 4160 - Centre d'études poétiques
3 ICAR - Interactions, Corpus, Apprentissages, Représentations

This article tries to link art and science in proposing the analysis of a text written by Berlioz in his memoirs. His text deals with the cooling of water under vacuum and its spectacular transformation into ice. We provide information allowing this experiment to be reproduced with students. We also focus on the way Berlioz, who is not a scientist, describes the experiment in terms of relationships between facts and models. To situate Berlioz's knowledge in the context of the 19th century, notion from history of science are also provided.

Mots clés: Berlioz; History/philosophy; physical chemistry; High School; water; thermodynamics; vacuum; Berlioz.

Domaines: Autre; Musique, musicologie et arts de la scène; Littératures

Gaëlle Loisel, Jean-François Le Maréchal. Berlioz and the freezing of boiling water. 2008. ⟨hal-00391752⟩