Read the following passage:
In the early seventeenth century, the prevailing scientific orthodoxy, inherited from Aristotelian physics, held that nature abhorred a vacuum. This dogma, which explained why liquids rose in pumps, remained largely unchallenged until Evangelista Torricelli’s experiments with mercury in 1643. Torricelli filled a glass tube with mercury and inverted it into a basin, observing that the liquid fell only partially, leaving an empty space at the top. To describe this unprecedented void, Torricelli chose not the language of mystical horror, but the precise terminology of equilibrium. He argued that the mercury column was sustained not by some occult suction, but by the weight of the surrounding atmosphere pressing down on the basin's surface. By framing the phenomenon as a mechanical balance rather than a cosmic aversion, Torricelli initiated a profound shift in natural philosophy, transforming the invisible, chaotic air into a measurable physical agent governed by mathematical laws.
Match each word or phrase from the passage to its primary rhetorical function.
- prevailing scientific orthodoxyTo establish the dominant, traditional framework of natural philosophy that was challenged by new experiments.
- mystical horrorTo illustrate the unscientific, personified language historically used to explain physical vacuums.
- mechanical balanceTo highlight the modern, physics-based model of atmospheric weight that replaced animistic explanations.