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| 1614 |
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| John Napier (1550–1617) introduced logarithms as a computational tool. | 1 |
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| 1627 |
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| Kepler, on the basis of Tycho Brahe's observations and his own theories, compiled the Rudolphine Tables, which made possible the calculation of future planetary positions and other astronomical events; the tables were standard for over a century. | 2 |
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| 1628 |
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| WILLIAM HARVEY (1578–1657), in his classic Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus, blended reason, comparative observation, and experimentation to demonstrate the circulation of the blood. | 3 |
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| 1632 |
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| Galileo fashioned in Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico e Copernicano a brilliant polemical masterpiece, which clearly showed the superiority of the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic system of the world. This work led to Galileo's trial and recantation before the Roman Inquisition of the Catholic church. | 4 |
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| 1637 |
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| RENÉ DESCARTES (1596–1650) published Discours de la méthode, an introduction to his philosophy, which served as a preface to his works on dioptrics, meteorology, and geometry. In the same year he published La géometrie, setting forth an analytic geometry, that is, representation of geometric figures by algebraic equations and algebraic equations by geometric figures. Pierre de Fermat (?1608–65) simultaneously and independently developed an analytic geometry. Both Descartes and Fermat applied analytic geometry to the finding of tangents to curves; Fermat also devised a general method for finding maxima and minima. | 5 |
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| 1638 |
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| Galileo in Discorsi e demonstrazione matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze established the basic principles of a mathematical description of falling bodies and projectile motion. | 6 |
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| 1642–71 |
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| Blaise Pascal (1623–62) constructed the first adding machine that could perform the operation of carrying. Some 30 years later, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) invented a more complex calculating machine that would multiply rapidly by repeated additions. | 7 |
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| 1644 |
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| Descartes in his Principia philosophiae provided mechanistic explanations in terms of matter and motion for a wide variety of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena and presented his vortex theory of planetary motion. | 8 |
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| 1648 |
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| Jan Baptista van Helmont (1577–1644), in his posthumously published collected works, Ortus medicinae, assigned the name “gas” to the “wild spirits” that were produced in various chemical processes and argued that acid fermentation, not “innate heat,” was the operative agent of digestion. | 9 |
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| 1654 |
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| Correspondence between Pascal and Fermat on mathematical treatment of games of chance resulted in the beginning of probability theory. | 10 |
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| 1655 |
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| John Wallis (1616–1703) published Arithmetica infinitorum, which studied infinite series and infinite products, solved problems of quadratures, and found tangents by use of infinitesimals. | 11 |
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| 1655 |
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| The natural philosopher Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Newcastle (1623–73), published The Philosophical and Physical Opinions, in 1666 Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, and four other works. She was the only woman to attend a meeting of the Royal Society, in 1667, when she listened to Boyle. | 12 |
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