Pierre-Simon deLaplace

It's fact
In 1784 Laplace was appointed as examiner at the Royal Artillery corps and Later passed then Napoleon Bonaparte, aged 16. At a later time Laplace went to beg Napoleon to accept a copy of his work, but Napoleon had heard that the book contained no mention of God. Napoleon, who was fond of putting embarrassing questions, received it with the remark, "M. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the Universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator." Laplace, who, though the most subtle of politicians, was as stiff as a martyr on every point of his philosophy, drew himself up and answered bluntly, "I did not need to make such an assumption". Napoleon, greatly amused, told this reply to Lagrange, who exclaimed, "AM that is a beautiful assumption; it explains many things". Laplace then declared, "This hypothesis, Sire, does explain everything, but does not permit to predict anything. As a scholar, I must provide you with works permitting predictions". Laplace thus defined science as a predicting tool. 

Pierre-Simon deLaplace
````````(1749-1827)
~~~~~~~~~~The great astronomer who believed in "Determinism" 

Born: 1749-03-23, Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy,France 
Died: March 5, 1827 (aged 77), Paris, France 
Residence: France 
Citizenship: French 
Field: Astronomy, physics, Mathematics 
Institutions: Ecole Militaire (1769-1776) 
Known for: Nebular hypothesis of Solar System formation, determinism.


Pierre-Simon Laplace was an astronomer mathematician of Frew origin. He is known as "The French Newton" because of his ability to appl, mathematics to problems of astronomy very successfully and immensely contributed to the development of mathematical astronomy 


The idea that science would predict accurately the future events of a system is known as determinism. This idea was put by a French scientist who popularized this idea. He is none other than Pierre-Simon Laplace.


Laplace summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mecanique Celeste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825). This seminal work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics, used by Sir Isaac Newton, to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems of astronomy. 


Pierre-Simon Laplace at 16, entered Caen University to study theology according to his father's wish. He later realised his mathematical ability and went to meet D'Alembert with a letter of introduction by one of his teachers at Caen. As a 19year old , Laplace was soon able to impress D'alembert and it is said that a problem that D'alembert gave him was solved by the youthful Laplace in a day!!and Laplace was appointed as a professor of Mathematics at Ecole Militaire. 


Laplace first worked on Differential equations other than working on mathematical astronomy and probability theory. By 1780's he was profoundly influencing the scientific community with his research and writings on mathematics and was continued doing important work in astronomy. 


Independently from philosopher-mathematician Immanuel Kant, Laplace formulated the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system , which states that solar system originated from the contraction and cooling of a large and flattened cloud of gas that was also rotating. He was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse, which did not enter mainstream astronomy till mid,20th century.


He also formulated Laplace's equation and invented the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical physics, a field that he took a Leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, widely used in applied mathematics, is also named after him. He also did work in physics researching on capillary action, speed of sound as well as the theory of heat. 

Posted in: Greatest Astronomers