VIAS Encyclopedia provides a collection of tables and definitions commonly needed in science and engineering.

Home Science History Biographies Pierre Simon Laplace
See also: Leonard Euler 
del.icio.us Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon MySpace Twitter

Pierre Simon Laplace

Pierre Simon Laplace (1749 - 1827)
Photo, German Museum, Munich
Pierre Simon Laplace, the son of a peasant, was born on the March 28, 1749, in Beaumont-en-Auge in Normandy. He attended the Benedictine day school up to the age of 16. In 1776, he enrolled as a cleric, however soon after this he became interested in mathematics. In 1768, he moved to Paris and was a pupil of d'Alembert. This provided him with a professorship, and after only five years he was selected to join the Academy of Science. His topics of interest were: extreme value problems, planetary motion, the Moon's orbit, solutions of differential equations, probability calculations, and game theory. His main interest was astromechanics. He calculated the stability of the solar system, publishing a paper on the tidal problem, thereby enabling an accurate calculation of spring tides. He defined the potential term, the determinant expansion theorem, and the Laplace Transformation. He also researched black holes and thermodynamics, mainly influenced by Lavoisier. In 1784, he became an examiner at the royal artillery school, where he introduced a selection procedure for graduates.

In 1788, he married Marie-Charlotte de Courty de Romanges, 20 years his junior, with whom he had two children. He became president of the Institut de France in 1796, whose members included Napoleon. After six weeks activity as Minister of the Interior, he received the post of Chancellor of the State.

In the field of acoustics, Laplace supplied the formula for the speed of sound (1816). He also wrote reports concentrating on capillary effects and molecular phenomena. Laplace was a man who could quickly adapt to the current system, however ended up with many enemies. He died on the March 5, 1827, in Paris. His most famous pupils were Poisson and Cauchy.

Home Science History Biographies Pierre Simon Laplace

Last Update: 2010-12-15