1692 in science

The year 1692 in science and technology:

Events

• In the American colonies, the Salem witch trials develop, following 250 years of witch-hunts in Europe.

Mathematics

• The tractrix, sometimes called a tractory or equitangential curve, is first studied by Christiaan Huygens, who gives it its name.
• John Arbuthnot publishes Of the Laws of Chance (translated from Huygens' De ratiociniis in ludo aleae), the first work on probability theory in English.

Medicine

• Thomas Sydenham's Processus integri ("The Process of Healing") is published posthumously.

Births

• April 22 – James Stirling, Scottish mathematician (died 1770)

Deaths

• May – John Banister, English missionary and botanist, accidentally shot (born 1654)

References