1640 in science

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The year 1640 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Contents

Botany

Mathematics

Technology

Births

Deaths

Related Research Articles

In mathematics, a Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a power of two. That is, it is a prime number of the form Mn = 2n − 1 for some integer n. They are named after Marin Mersenne, a French Minim friar, who studied them in the early 17th century. If n is a composite number then so is 2n − 1. Therefore, an equivalent definition of the Mersenne primes is that they are the prime numbers of the form Mp = 2p − 1 for some prime p.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prime number</span> Evenly divided only by 1 or itself

A prime number is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, 1 × 5 or 5 × 1, involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a product (2 × 2) in which both numbers are smaller than 4. Primes are central in number theory because of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic: every natural number greater than 1 is either a prime itself or can be factorized as a product of primes that is unique up to their order.

Fermat's little theorem states that if p is a prime number, then for any integer a, the number is an integer multiple of p. In the notation of modular arithmetic, this is expressed as

In number theory, a prime number p is a Sophie Germain prime if 2p + 1 is also prime. The number 2p + 1 associated with a Sophie Germain prime is called a safe prime. For example, 11 is a Sophie Germain prime and 2 × 11 + 1 = 23 is its associated safe prime. Sophie Germain primes are named after French mathematician Sophie Germain, who used them in her investigations of Fermat's Last Theorem. One attempt by Germain to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem was to let p be a prime number of the form 8k + 7 and to let n = p – 1. In this case, is unsolvable. Germain’s proof, however, remained unfinished. Through her attempts to solve Fermat's Last Theorem, Germain developed a result now known as Germain's Theorem which states that if p is an odd prime and 2p + 1 is also prime, then p must divide x, y, or z. Otherwise, . This case where p does not divide x, y, or z is called the first case. Sophie Germain’s work was the most progress achieved on Fermat’s last theorem at that time. Latter work by Kummer and others always divided the problem into first and second cases. Sophie Germain primes and safe primes have applications in public key cryptography and primality testing. It has been conjectured that there are infinitely many Sophie Germain primes, but this remains unproven.

In mathematics, a Fermat number, named after Pierre de Fermat, who first studied them, is a positive integer of the form

In recreational mathematics, a repdigit or sometimes monodigit is a natural number composed of repeated instances of the same digit in a positional number system. The word is a portmanteau of repeated and digit. Examples are 11, 666, 4444, and 999999. All repdigits are palindromic numbers and are multiples of repunits. Other well-known repdigits include the repunit primes and in particular the Mersenne primes.

The works of the 17th-century mathematician Pierre de Fermat engendered many theorems. Fermat's theorem may refer to one of the following theorems:

In number theory, a Wieferich prime is a prime number p such that p2 divides 2p − 1 − 1, therefore connecting these primes with Fermat's little theorem, which states that every odd prime p divides 2p − 1 − 1. Wieferich primes were first described by Arthur Wieferich in 1909 in works pertaining to Fermat's Last Theorem, at which time both of Fermat's theorems were already well known to mathematicians.

In additive number theory, Fermat's theorem on sums of two squares states that an odd prime p can be expressed as:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Parkinson (botanist)</span> English herbalist and botanist (1567–1650)

John Parkinson was the last of the great English herbalists and one of the first of the great English botanists. He was apothecary to James I and a founding member of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in December 1617, and was later Royal Botanist to Charles I. He is known for two monumental works, Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris, which generally describes the proper cultivation of plants; and Theatrum Botanicum, the most complete and beautifully presented English treatise on plants of its time. One of the most eminent gardeners of his day, he kept a botanical garden at Long Acre in Covent Garden, today close to Trafalgar Square, and maintained close relations with other important English and Continental botanists, herbalists and plantsmen.

The 18th-century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) is among the most prolific and successful mathematicians in the history of the field. His seminal work had a profound impact in numerous areas of mathematics and he is widely credited for introducing and popularizing modern notation and terminology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre de Fermat</span> French mathematician and lawyer

Pierre de Fermat was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is recognized for his discovery of an original method of finding the greatest and the smallest ordinates of curved lines, which is analogous to that of differential calculus, then unknown, and his research into number theory. He made notable contributions to analytic geometry, probability, and optics. He is best known for his Fermat's principle for light propagation and his Fermat's Last Theorem in number theory, which he described in a note at the margin of a copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica. He was also a lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fermat's Last Theorem</span> 17th century conjecture proved by Andrew Wiles in 1994

In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than 2. The cases n = 1 and n = 2 have been known since antiquity to have infinitely many solutions.

A timeline of number theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fermat's right triangle theorem</span> Rational right triangles cannot have square area

Fermat's right triangle theorem is a non-existence proof in number theory, published in 1670 among the works of Pierre de Fermat, soon after his death. It is the only complete proof given by Fermat. It has several equivalent formulations, one of which was stated in 1225 by Fibonacci. In its geometric forms, it states:

The year 1588 in science and technology, Armada year, included a number of events, some of which are listed here.

In number theory, a pernicious number is a positive integer such that the Hamming weight of its binary representation is prime, that is, there is a prime number of 1's when it is written as a binary number.

The Euclid–Euler theorem is a theorem in number theory that relates perfect numbers to Mersenne primes. It states that an even number is perfect if and only if it has the form 2p−1(2p − 1), where 2p − 1 is a prime number. The theorem is named after mathematicians Euclid and Leonhard Euler, who respectively proved the "if" and "only if" aspects of the theorem.

From Zero to Infinity: What Makes Numbers Interesting is a book in popular mathematics and number theory by Constance Reid. It was originally published in 1955 by the Thomas Y. Crowell Company. The fourth edition was published in 1992 by the Mathematical Association of America in their MAA Spectrum series. A K Peters published a fifth "Fiftieth anniversary edition" in 2006.

References

  1. Tran, Linh. "Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants, or, An Herbal of a Large Extent". Texas A&M University Bioinformatics Working Group. Archived from the original on November 5, 2008. Retrieved 2011-04-01.