1749 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1749 in science
and technology
involved some significant events.
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Pierre BouguerPierre BouguerPierre Bouguer was a French mathematician, geophysicist, geodesist, and astronomer. He is also known as "the father of naval architecture"....
publishes La figure de la terre in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, describing some of the results of his work with Charles Marie de La CondamineCharles Marie de La CondamineCharles Marie de La Condamine was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He spent ten years in present-day Ecuador measuring the length of a degree latitude at the equator and preparing the first map of the Amazon region based on astronomical observations.-Biography:Charles Marie de La...
on the French Geodesic MissionFrench Geodesic MissionThe French Geodesic Mission was an 18th-century expedition to what is now Ecuador carried out for the purpose of measuring the roundness of the Earth and measuring the length of a degree of longitude at the Equator...
to PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
(begun in 17351735 in scienceThe year 1735 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* July 11 - Pluto enters a fourteen year period inside the orbit of Neptune, which will not recur until 1979.-Chemistry:...
) to measure a degree of the meridian arcMeridian arcIn geodesy, a meridian arc measurement is a highly accurate determination of the distance between two points with the same longitude. Two or more such determinations at different locations then specify the shape of the reference ellipsoid which best approximates the shape of the geoid. This...
near the equatorEquatorAn equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
.
Biology
- Georges-Louis Leclerc, afterwards Comte du BuffonGeorges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonGeorges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier...
begins publication of his .
Mathematics
- April 12 - EulerLeonhard EulerLeonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion...
produces the first proof of Fermat's theorem on sums of two squares, based on infinite descentInfinite descentIn mathematics, a proof by infinite descent is a particular kind of proof by contradiction which relies on the fact that the natural numbers are well ordered. One typical application is to show that a given equation has no solutions. Assuming a solution exists, one shows that another exists, that...
.
Other events
- April 12 - Official opening of the Radcliffe LibraryRadcliffe CameraThe Radcliffe Camera is a building in Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in the English Palladian style and built in 1737–1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library.-History:...
in OxfordOxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, built under the will of the physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
John Radcliffe (d. 17141714 in scienceThe year 1714 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Mathematics:* March - Roger Cotes publishes Logometrica in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society...
) (although it does not become a primarily science libraryRadcliffe Science LibraryThe Radcliffe Science Library is the main teaching and research science library at the University of Oxford, England.Being officially part of the Bodleian Library, although with a completely separate building, the library holds the Legal Deposit material for the sciences and is thus entitled to...
until 1810).
Births
- March 23 - Pierre-Simon LaplacePierre-Simon LaplacePierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste...
, FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
(d. 18271827 in scienceThe year 1827 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Aluminium isolated by Friedrich Wöhler.* William Prout classifies the components of food into the three main divisions of carbohydrates, fats and proteins....
) - May 17 - Edward JennerEdward JennerEdward Anthony Jenner was an English scientist who studied his natural surroundings in Berkeley, Gloucestershire...
, EnglishEnglish peopleThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, inventor of the smallpoxSmallpoxSmallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
vaccineVaccineA vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
(d. 18231823 in scienceThe year 1823 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Olbers' paradox is described by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers.* December 29 - Great Comet of 1823 first observed.-Chemistry:...
) - September 25 - Abraham Gottlob WernerAbraham Gottlob WernerAbraham Gottlob Werner , was a German geologist who set out an early theory about the stratification of the Earth's crust and coined the word Neptunism...
, German geologistGeologistA geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
(d. 18171817 in scienceThe year 1817 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Discovery of cadmium by Friedrich Strohmeyer.* Discovery of lithium by Johann Arfvedson.* Discovery of selenium by Jöns Jakob Berzelius....
)
Deaths
- September 10 - Émilie du ChâteletÉmilie du Châtelet-Early life:Du Châtelet was born on 17 December 1706 in Paris, the only daughter of six children. Three brothers lived to adulthood: René-Alexandre , Charles-Auguste , and Elisabeth-Théodore . Her eldest brother, René-Alexandre, died in 1720, and the next brother, Charles-Auguste, died in 1731...
, French mathematician and physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
(b. 17061706 in scienceThe year 1706 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Mathematics:* William Jones publishes Synopsis palmariorum matheseos or, A New Introduction to the Mathematics, Containing the Principles of Arithmetic and Geometry Demonstrated in a Short and Easie Method ... Designed for .....
) - December 23 - Mark CatesbyMark CatesbyMark Catesby was an English naturalist. Between 1731 and 1743 Catesby published his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America...
, English naturalistNaturalistNaturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
(b. 16831683 in scienceThe year 1683 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Events:* Vauban's manual on fortification, Le Directeur-Général des fortifications, begins publication at The Hague.-Births:...
)