1687 in science

Astronomy

• The constellation Triangulum Minus is named by Johannes Hevelius.

Biology

• Alida Withoos at the house of Agnes Block makes a painting of the first pineapple bred in Europe.

  Medicine

• Dutch physician Willem ten Rhijne publishes Verhandelinge van de Asiatise Melaatsheid na een naaukeuriger ondersoek ten dienste van het gemeen in Amsterdam, explaining Asian leprosy to the West.

  Physics

• July 5 – Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, known as the Principia, is published by the Royal Society of London. In it, Newton describes his theory of universal gravitation, explains the laws of mechanics, gives a formula for the speed of sound and demonstrates that Earth is an oblate spheroid. The concepts in the Principia become the foundations of modern physics.

  Births

• October 14 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician.

  Deaths

• January 28 – Johannes Hevelius, German astronomer.