1647 lDescartes’s theory of vortices, found in his book Principia
Philosophiae,becomes a major contribution to the field of
mathematics.1652 lNewton starts elementary school at the age of 10. He is soon
pulled out of school because he doesn’t seem to have an
affinity for learning, and is not allowed to return until he is
13 years old.1653 lPIERRE DE FERMATis mistakenly reported as having died
from the plague.lPascal writes Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids,giving
us Pascal’s law of pressure, considered a major contribution
to physics.lDescartes’s paper on music theory, Renati Descartes
Musicae Compendium,published in 1650 by a Dutch
publisher, is translated by mathematician VISCOUNT WILLIAM
BROUNCKERand expanded to twice the size of the original
work. This becomes Brouncker’s only published book.1654 lMathematician Blaise Pascal begins a correspondence with
Fermat about the PROBABILITYof rolling a double six on
dice. Over the course of the summer, exchanging five letters
between them, they create the theory of probability.1655 lJOHN WALLISintroduces the symbol ∞for infinity, which
had previously been used by the Romans as the number
1,000. The symbol does not appear to be used again for
some 60 years, until JAKOB BERNOULLIuses it in his book
Ars Conjectandi.1656 lWallis writes Arithmetica Infinitorum,which instantly
becomes the definitive book on arithmetic.1657 lFrans van Schooten recommends using COORDINATESin
three-dimensional space.1658 lPascal, having turned to religion and discarding his study of
mathematics, writes his famous work in philosophy on life
and death, Pensées,and creates Pascal’s wager.1647 – 1658 CHRONOLOGY
1647 – 1658 CHRONOLOGY