1692 in science
{{Short description|none}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2021}}
{{Year nav topic5|1692|science}}
{{Science year nav|1692}}
The year 1692 in science and technology:
Events
- In the American colonies, the Salem witch trials develop, following 250 years of witch-hunts in Europe.{{Cite book|last=Gale|first=Robert L.|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001272|title=Corey, Martha (1625–22 September 1692), Salem "witch"|date=February 2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|series=American National Biography Online}}
Mathematics
- The tractrix, sometimes called a tractory or equitangential curve, is first studied by Christiaan Huygens, who gives it its name.
- John Arbuthnot publishes Of the Laws of Chance (translated from Huygens' De ratiociniis in ludo aleae), the first work on probability theory in English.
Medicine
- Thomas Sydenham's Processus integri ("The Process of Healing") is published posthumously.
Births
- April 22 – James Stirling, Scottish mathematician (died 1770)
Deaths
- May – John Banister, English missionary and botanist, accidentally shot (born 1654){{Cite journal|date=December 1971|title=Joseph and Nesta Ewan.
John Banister and His Natural History of Virginia, 1678–1692 . Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1970. Pp. xxx, 485. $15.00|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/ahr/76.5.1588|journal=The American Historical Review|doi=10.1086/ahr/76.5.1588|issn=1937-5239|url-access=subscription}}