1749-1827

French Astronomer and Mathematician

Pierre-Simon Laplace's Celestial Mechanics is generally regarded as the crowning achievement of Newtonian gravitation. Laplace also made fundamental contributions to mathematics introducing the Laplace transform method, Laplace coefficients, and establishing probability theory.

Laplace was born at Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, France, on March 23, 1749. From an early age his education was directed towards an ecclesiastical vocation; he attended the Benedictine-run Collège in Beaumont-en-Auge (1756-66) before matriculating at the University of Caen (1766). At Caen his interest in mathematics was sparked, and in 1768 he left for Paris with a letter of introduction to Jean d'Alembert (1717-1773). Impressed, d'Alembert secured for Laplace an appointment at the Ecole Militaire.

Pierre-Simon Laplace. (Library of Congress. Reproduced with permission.)

Laplace quickly established his mathematical reputation and was elected to the Académie des Sciences (1773). Though he made many fundamental contributions to mathematics, Laplace was primarily interested in understanding the...