The year 1777 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Mathematics

Leonhard Euler introduces the symbol i to represent the square root of -1.[1]

Technology

probable date - Thomas Arnold of London produces the first watch ("Arnold 36") to be called a chronometer.[2][3]

Awards

Copley Medal: John Mudge

Births

February 12 - Bernard Courtois, chemist (died 1838)
30 April 1777 Birth of Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician (died 1855)
May 4 - Louis Jacques Thénard, chemist (died 1857)
August 14 - Hans Christian Ørsted, physicist (died 1851)

Deaths

September 22 - John Bartram, naturalist and explorer considered the "father of American botany" (born 1699)
December 7 - Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist (born 1708)

References

^ Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
^ An account kept during thirteen months in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich of the going of a pocket chronometer made on a new construction by John Arnold. London. 1780.
^ "chronometer, n.". Oxford English Dictionary online version. 1989. Retrieved 2012-03-09. subscription or UK public library membership required