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Biography of Laplace, Marquis de
Name: Laplace, Marquis de
Birth Date: March 23, 1749
Death Date: March 5, 1827
Place of Birth: Normandy, France
Nationality: French
Gender: Male
Occupations: mathematician
Laplace, Marquis de
The French mathematician Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace (1749-1827), made outstanding contributions to pure mathematics, probability theory, and dynamical astronomy.Pierre Simon Laplace was born on March 23, 1749, at Beaumont-en-Auge in Normandy. Little is known of his early life, for when he became famous, he was disinclined to talk about his humble origin as the son of a farmer. Rich neighbors recognized the boy's talent and helped to secure his education, first in Caen and then at the military school in Beaumont. At the conclusion of his course, Laplace remained for a short time as a teacher. Desiring to further his studies in mathematics, however, he soon set out for Paris. He sent a letter concerning the general principles of mechanics to Jean d'Alembert, who responded immediately and invited Laplace to an interview. Through the efforts of D'Alembert, Laplace obtained a professorship of mathematics at the military school in Paris.In 1773 Laplace …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…Laplace developed a method of approximation for definite integrals with integrands containing factors of high powers, a type frequently occurring in probability theory.Laplace was also the first to apply infinitesimal calculus to probability problems. This he did by showing that a certain partial differential equation was approximately equivalent to the finite difference equation giving the solution of a particular problem. Another important contribution of Laplace was the extension of the work of Thomas Bayes, who had been the first to use mathematical probability inductively, that is, to reason from observed events to their causes. Further Reading Extracts from Laplace's work on the nebular hypothesis, astronomy, and probability are available in Harlow Shapley and Helen E. Howarth, A Source Book in Astronomy (1929). A short account of his work is given in Roger Hahn, Laplace as a Newtonian Scientist (1967). See also Jerzy Neyman and Lucien M. LeCam, eds., Bernoulli, 1713; Bayes, 1763; Laplace, 1813 (1965).
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