Amedeo Avodagro, conte di Quaregna e Ceretto, was born into a family of distinguished lawyers (Piedmont Family). Following in his family's footsteps, he graduated in ecclesiastical law (age 20) and began to practice law. However, Avogadro also was interested in the natural sciences and in 1800 he began private studies in physics and mathematics. In 1809, he started teaching the natural sciences in a liceo (high school) in Vericelli. It was in Vericelli that Avogadro wrote a memoria (concise note) in which he declared the hypothesis that is now known as Avogadro's law.Not much is known about Avogadro's private life. He had six children and was reputed to be a religious man and also a discreet lady's man. Some historical accounts indicate that Avogadro sponsored and aided Sardinians planning a revolution on that island, stopped by the concession of Charles Albert's modern Constitution (Statuto Albertino)Avogadro's law states that equal volumes of gases, at the same temperature and pressure, contain the same number of molecules. Avogadro's hypothesis wasn't generally accepted until after 1858 (after Avogadro's death), when the Italian chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro was able to explain why there were some organic chemical exceptions to Avogadro's hypothesis. One of the most important contributions of Avogadro's work was his resolution of the confusion surrounding atoms and molecules (although he didn't use the term 'atom'). Avogadro believed that particles could be composed of molecules and that molecules could be composed of still simpler units, atoms.The number of molecules in a mole (one gram molecular weight) was termed Avogadro's number (sometimes called Avogadro's constant) in honor of Avogadro's theories. Avogadro's number has been experimentally determined to be 6.022x10^23 molecules per gram-mole.