1687

Events in 1687 3

• 1632 – 1687 Jean-Baptiste Lully French Baroque opera composer Italian-born French composer who dominated French music under Louis XIV, establishing the French opera tradition and the modern orchestra.
• 1666 – 1687 Newton — gravity, light and calculus Principia Mathematica: the laws governing the universe Between 1666 and 1687, Isaac Newton formulated the law of universal gravitation, the three laws of motion, the corpuscular theory of light (showing white light is a spectrum of colours), and co-invented calculus (independently of Leibniz). His Principia Mathematica (1687) unified terrestrial and celestial mechanics, explaining both falling apples and planetary orbits with a single mathematical framework. It is the most influential scientific book ever written.
• 1687 Leibniz — calculus and binary numbers The mathematics of change and the foundation of computing Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently developed calculus (publishing in 1684, before Newton) using the notation — dy/dx and the integral sign ∫ — still used today. He also developed the binary number system (1679), demonstrating that all numbers can be expressed with only 0 and 1. The binary system is the foundation of all modern digital computing.