1638 in science
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The year 1638 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Contents |
[edit] Astronomy
- December 21 - Total eclipse of the moon coincides with the winter solstice, for the first time in the Common Era.
[edit] Physics
- The final book of the now-blind Galileo, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche, intorno à due nuove scienze is published in Leiden, dealing with the strength of materials and the motion of objects. In it, he discusses the square-cube law, the law of falling bodies and infinity. He also discusses his experimental method for measuring the speed of light; he has been unable to determine it over a short distance.[1]
[edit] Publications
- Publication of The Man in the Moone, or the Discovrse of a Voyage thither "by Domingo Gonsales" (actually by Francis Godwin, Bishop of Hereford (d. 1633)), an early example of science fiction.[2]
[edit] Births
- January 1 (NS January 11) - Nicolas Steno, Danish pioneer of geology (d. 1686)
- May 11 - Guy-Crescent Fagon, French physician and botanist (d. 1718)
- June 8 - Pierre Magnol, French botanist (d. 1715)
- November - James Gregory, Scottish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1675)
- Paolo Falconieri, Florentine polymath (d. 1704)
[edit] Deaths
- February 26 - Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician (b. 1581)
- April 15/16 - John Tradescant the elder, English botanist (b. c.1570s)
- October 21 - Willem Blaeu, Dutch cartographer (b. 1571)
[edit] Reference
- ^ Galileo Galilei (1974). Two New Sciences. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299064042.
- ^ Poole, William (2010). "Kepler's Somnium and Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone: Births of Science-Fiction 1593–1638". In Houston, Chloë. New Worlds Reflected: Travel and Utopia in the Early Modern Period. Farnham: Ashgate. pp. 57–70. ISBN 9780754666479. http://books.google.com/books?id=B5-fwpWPbVEC.
