1772 in science
overview of natural science-related events during the year of 1772
The year 1772 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
Lagrange finds the special-case solution to the three-body problem that becomes known as the Lagrangian points.
Cartography
Johann Heinrich Lambert publishes seven new map projections, including the Lambert conformal conic, transverse Mercator and Lambert azimuthal equal area.
Chemistry
Daniel Rutherford isolates nitrogen.
Joseph Priestley synthesizes nitrous oxide as phlogisticated nitrous air. Antoine Lavoisier privately presents his own views on phlogiston theory to the French Academy of Sciences.
Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau demonstrates that metals gain weight on calcination.
Earth sciences
The Central England temperature (CET) record begins daily measurements of mean surface air temperatures in the Midlands region of England.
William Hamilton publishes Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and Other Volcano's: in a series of letters addressed to the Royal Society from the Honorable Sir William Hamilton (London).
Mathematics
Euler confirms that
2
31
−
1
{\displaystyle 2^{31}-1}
is a Mersenne prime.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1772 in science” as overview of natural science-related events during the year of 1772. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q937559. The first chronological checks are 1772.
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This entry incorporates text from “1772 in science” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.