1742 in science
The year 1742 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- January 14 – Death of Edmond Halley; James Bradley succeeds him as Astronomer Royal in Great Britain.
Mathematics
- June – Christian Goldbach produces Goldbach's conjecture.
- Colin Maclaurin publishes his Treatise on Fluxions in Great Britain, the first systematic exposition of Newton's methods.
Metrology
- Anders Celsius publishes his proposal for a centigrade temperature scale originated in 1741.
Physiology and medicine
- Surgeon Joseph Hurlock publishes his A Practical Treatise upon Dentition, or The breeding of teeth in children in London, the first treatise in English on dentition.
Technology
- Benjamin Robins publishes his New Principles of Gunnery, containing the determination of the force of gun-powder and an investigation of the difference in the resisting power of the air to swift and slow motions in London, containing a description of his ballistic pendulum and the results of his scientific experiments into improvements in ballistics.
- The first large reflecting telescope is made, in Gregorian form, by James Short, for use by Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, in London.
Awards
Births
- March 15 – John Stackhouse, English botanist.
- May 18 – Lionel Lukin, English inventor.
- December 3 – James Rennell, English geographer, historian and oceanographer.
- December 9 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist.
- December 26 – Ignaz von Born, Hungarian metallurgist.
Deaths
- January 14 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist.
- February 28 – Willem 's Gravesande, Dutch polymath.
- May 13 – Nicolas Andry, French physician.
- September 22 – Frederic Louis Norden, Danish explorer.