1739 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1739 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.
Exploration
- January 1 - Bouvet IslandBouvet IslandBouvet Island is an uninhabited Antarctic volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, 2,525 km south-southwest of South Africa. It is a dependent territory of Norway and, lying north of 60°S latitude, is not subject to the Antarctic Treaty. The centre of the island is an ice-filled crater of an...
is discovered by 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...
explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de LozierJean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de LozierJean Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier was a French sailor, explorer, and governor of the Mascarene Islands.He was orphaned at the age of seven and after having been educated in Paris, he was sent to Saint Malo to study navigation. He became a lieutenant of the French East India Company in 1731...
in the South Atlantic OceanAtlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
.
Mathematics
- Leonhard 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...
solves the general homogeneous linear ordinary differential equation with constant coefficients. - Euler invents the tonnetzTonnetzIn musical tuning and harmony, the Tonnetz is a conceptual lattice diagram representing tonal space first described by Leonhard Euler in 1739....
(German for "tone-network"), a conceptual latticeLattice (group)In mathematics, especially in geometry and group theory, a lattice in Rn is a discrete subgroup of Rn which spans the real vector space Rn. Every lattice in Rn can be generated from a basis for the vector space by forming all linear combinations with integer coefficients...
diagramDiagramA diagram is a two-dimensional geometric symbolic representation of information according to some visualization technique. Sometimes, the technique uses a three-dimensional visualization which is then projected onto the two-dimensional surface...
that shows a two-dimensional tonal pitch spacePitch spaceIn music theory, pitch spaces model relationships between pitches. These models typically use distance to model the degree of relatedness, with closely related pitches placed near one another, and less closely related pitches placed farther apart. Depending on the complexity of the relationships...
created by the network of relationships between musical pitches in just intonationJust intonationIn music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
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Physics
- 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...
publishes Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu.
Societies
- June 2 - The Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesRoyal Swedish Academy of SciencesThe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
is founded in StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
by Linnaeus, Mårten TriewaldMårten TriewaldMårten Triewald , sometimes referred to as Mårten Triewald the Younger, was a Swedish merchant, engineer and amateur physicist....
and others.
Births
- December 14 - Pierre Samuel du Pont de NemoursPierre Samuel du Pont de NemoursPierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours was a French nobleman, writer, economist, and government official, who was the father of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, the founder of E.I...
, French industrialist (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
- April 19 - Nicholas SaundersonNicholas SaundersonNicholas Saunderson was an English scientist and mathematician. According to one leading historian of statistics, he may have been the earliest discoverer of Bayes theorem.-Biography:...
, English scientist and mathematician (b. 16821682 in scienceThe year 1682 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* A comet is observed, which later becomes known as Comet Halley, after Edmund Halley successfully predicts its return in 1758.-Botany:...
) - April 27 - Nicolas SarrabatNicolas SarrabatFr. Nicolas Sarrabat or Sarabat , also known as Nicolas Sarrabat de la Baisse, was an eighteenth-century French mathematician and scientist. He was born in Lyon, the son of the painter Daniel Sarrabat , and the nephew of engraver Isaac Sarrabat...
, French scientist, astronomer and mathematician (b. 16981698 in scienceThe year 1698 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* Christiaan Huygens, in his posthumously published book Cosmotheros, argues that other planets in the solar system are inhabited, starting a debate that extends into the 20th century.-Exploration:* November - HMS...
)