1687 in science

List of years in science (table)
... 1677 1678 1679 1680 1681 1682 1683 ... 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690 ... 1691 1692 1693 1694 1695 1696 1697 ...
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Philosophy Science +...

The year 1687 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• The constellation Triangulum Minus is named by Johannes Hevelius.

Biology

• Alida Withoos at the house of Agnes Block makes a painting of the first pineapple bred in Europe.

Medicine

• Dutch physician Willem ten Rhijne publishes Verhandelinge van de Asiatise Melaatsheid na een naaukeuriger ondersoek ten dienste van het gemeen in Amsterdam, explaining Asian leprosy to the West.

Physics

• July 5 – Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, known as the Principia, is published by the Royal Society of London. In it, Newton describes his theory of universal gravitation, explains the laws of mechanics (including Newton's laws of motion), gives a formula for the speed of sound and demonstrates that Earth is an oblate spheroid. The concepts in the Principia become the foundations of modern physics.

Births

• October 14 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician (died 1768).

Deaths

• January 28 – Johannes Hevelius, German astronomer (born 1611).