Question

What was the major difference between Galvani’s hypothesis and Volta’s hypothesis? The major difference between Galvani's and Volta's hypotheses is related to the source of electrical activity in animals. Galvani's hypothesis proposed that electricity was generated within living organisms, suggesting that animals themselves were the source of electrical activity. Volta's hypothesis, on the other hand, argued that the electricity observed in animal tissues was due to external factors, specifically the contact between dissimilar metals (known as the voltaic pile), and not generated by the animals.

Answer 1

Galvani believed that electricity was inherently present in living organisms ('animal electricity'), whereas Volta postulated that electricity in animal tissue was due to the external contact between different metals, leading to his invention of the battery.

Step-by-step explanation:

The major difference between Galvani's hypothesis and Volta's hypothesis concerns the origin of electrical activity. Galvani, an Italian physician, and scientist believed that electricity was intrinsic to biological tissues, a concept he termed 'animal electricity.' He observed that when the muscles of dissected frog legs were exposed to an electric charge, they twitched, leading him to conclude that the source of this electricity was internal to the living organisms themselves. Conversely, Alessandro Volta, whose work was partly inspired by Galvani, theorized that the electrical activity observed was due to an external factor, more specifically the contact between different metals. This led him to invent the voltaic pile, which is the basis for modern batteries and is critical in the understanding of electrochemical cells, including both galvanic cells, which generate electricity from spontaneous reactions, and electrolytic cells, which require an external electric source to induce nonspontaneous reactions these principles are foundational in the field of electrochemistry.