1686 in science

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The year 1686 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• Gottfried Kirch notices that Chi Cygni's brightness varies.

Biology

• John Ray begins publication of his Historia Plantarum, including the first biological definition of the term species; also his edition of Francis Willughby's Historia Piscum.

Geology

• Edmund Halley establishes the relationship between barometric pressure and height above sea level.

Meteorology

• Edmund Halley presents a systematic study of the trade winds and monsoons and identifies solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions.

Physics

• Isaac Newton uses a fixed length pendulum with weights of varying composition to test the weak equivalence principle to 1 part in 1000.

Births

• February 10 – Jan Frederik Gronovius, Dutch botanist (died 1762)
• May 24 – Gabriel Fahrenheit, physicist and inventor (died 1736)
• July 6 – Antoine de Jussieu, French naturalist (died 1758)
• October (possible date) – John Machin, English mathematician (died 1751)

Deaths

• May 11 – Otto von Guericke, German physicist (born 1602)
• November 25 (NS December 5) – Nicolas Steno, Danish pioneer geologist (born 1638)