1686 in science

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

Astronomy

John Ray begins publication of his Historia Plantarum, including the first biological definition of the term species;^[1] also his edition of Francis Willughby's Historia Piscum.^[2]

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

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

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

^ Mayr, Ernst (1982). The Growth of Biological Thought: diversity, evolution, and inheritance. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. p. 256. ISBN 0674364457.
^ Egerton, Frank N. (October 2005). "A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 18: John Ray and His Associates Francis Willughby and William Derham". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 86 (4): 301–313. http://www.esapubs.org/bulletin/current/history_list/history18.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-26.
^ McConnell, Anita (2004). "Machin, John (bap. 1686?, died 1751)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17533. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17533?docPos=2. Retrieved 2007-06-26. Subscription or UK public library membership required