1640 in science

The year 1640 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Botany

• John Parkinson publishes Theatrum Botanicum:The Theater of Plants, or, An Herbal of a Large Extent.^[1]

Mathematics

• The 16-year-old
  hexagrammum mysticum in his Essai pour les coniques which he sends to Mersenne
  .
• October 18 –
  Fermat states his "little theorem" in a letter to Frénicle de Bessy: if p is a prime number, then for any integer
  a, a ^p − a will be divisible by p.
• December 25 – Fermat claims a proof of the
  odd prime
  p is expressible as the sum of two squares.

• The micrometer is developed.
• A form of bayonet is invented; in later years it will gradually replace the pike.
• The
  sharpshooting
  .

Births

• April 1 –
  Danish mathematician (died 1697
  )
• December 13 (bapt.) –
  naturalist and chemist (died 1696
  )
• Elias Tillandz, Swedish physician and botanist in Finland (died 1693)

Deaths

• December 22 – Jean de Beaugrand, French mathematician (born c. 1584)

References