The year 1740 in
science and
technology involved some significant events.
Mathematics
Jean Paul de Gua de Malves publishes his work of
analytic geometry, Usages de l'analyse de Descartes pour découvrir, sans le secours du calcul differentiel, les propriétés, ou affections principales des lignes géométriques de tous les ordres [sic].
Émilie du Châtelet publishes Institutions de Physique, including a demonstration that the
energy of a moving object is proportional to the square of its velocity (Ek = 1⁄2mv²).
Louis Bertrand Castel publishes L'Optique des couleurs in
Paris, including the observation that the colours of white light split by a
prism depend on distance from the prism.
Technology
Henry Hindley of Yorkshire invents a device to cut the teeth of clock wheels.[3]