Pierre-simon laplace contributions to mathematics
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Quick Info
Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, France
Paris, France
Biography
Pierre-Simon Laplace's father, Pierre Laplace, was comfortably well off in the cider trade. Laplace's mother, Marie-Anne Sochon, came from a fairly prosperous farming family who owned land at Tourgéville. Many accounts of Laplace say his family were 'poor farming people' or 'peasant farmers' but these seem to be rather inaccurate although there is little evidence of academic achievement except for an uncle who is thought to have been a secondary school teacher of mathematics. This is stated in [1] in these terms:-There is little record of intellectual distinction in the family beyond what was to be expected of the cultivated provincial bourgeoisie and the minor gentry.Laplace attended a Benedictine priory school in Beaumont-en-Au
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Pierre Simon Laplace (1749 - 1827)
From `A Short Account of the History of Mathematics' (4th edition, 1908) by W. W. Rouse Ball.
Pierre Simon Laplace was born at Beaumont-en-Auge in Normandy on March 23, 1749, and died at Paris on March 5, 1827. He was the son of a small cottager or perhaps a farm-labourer, and owed his education to the interest excited in some wealthy neighbours by his abilities and engaging presence. Very little is known of his early years, for when he became distinguished he had the pettiness to hold himself aloof both from his relatives and from those who had assisted him. It would seem from a pupil he became an usher in the school at Beaumont; but, having procured a letter of introduction to D'Alembert, he went to Paris to push his fortune. A paper on the principles of mechanics excited D'Alembert's interest, and on his recommendation a place in the military school was offered to Laplace.
Secure of a competency, Laplace now threw himself into original research, and in the next seventeen years, 1771-1787, he produced much of his original work in astro
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Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon Laplace (23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827), later Marquis de Laplace, was a French mathematician and astronomer.
His work helped to develop mathematical astronomy and statistics. His five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799–1825) was a key work. In it, he changed the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus, which meant it could tackle a wider range of problems. In statistics, the so-called Bayesian interpretation of probability was mainly developed by Laplace.[1]
He invented Laplace's equation, and pioneered the Laplace transform which is used in many branches of mathematical physics. The Laplacian differential operator, widely used in mathematics, is also named after him.[2]
Astronomy
[change | change source]Solar system
[change | change source]Laplace's view on the origin of the Solar System is still ours today. He recognised, like Newton, that the key force in the Solar System was gravitation. Gravitation caused the coming together of gas and small particles into one cent
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