The year 1740 in science and technology involved some significant events.

List of years in science (table)
+...

Mathematics

edit
  • Jean Paul de Gua de Malves publishes his work of analytic geometry, Usages de l'analyse de Descartes pour découvrir, sans le secours du calcul differentiel, les propriétés, ou affections principales des lignes géométriques de tous les ordres [sic].

Metallurgy

edit

Physics

edit
  • Jacques-Barthélemy Micheli du Crest creates a spirit thermometer, making use of two fixed points, 0 for "Temperature of earth" based on a cave at Paris Observatory and 100 for the heat of boiling water.[2]
  • Émilie du Châtelet publishes Institutions de Physique, including a demonstration that the energy of a moving object is proportional to the square of its velocity (Ek = 12mv²).
  • Louis Bertrand Castel publishes L'Optique des couleurs in Paris, including the observation that the colours of white light split by a prism depend on distance from the prism.

Technology

edit
  • Henry Hindley of Yorkshire invents a device to cut the teeth of clock wheels.[3]

Awards

edit

Births

edit

Deaths

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Smiles, Samuel (1879). Industrial Biography. p. 99.
  2. ^ Hutton, Charles (1815). A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary: Volume 2. Weybridge, Surrey: S. Hamilton. p. 509.
  3. ^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 308. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
  4. ^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 21 July 2020.