Pierre-Simon Laplace

Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was an influential French scholar whose work was important to the development of mathematics, statistics, physics and astronomy. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five-volume Celestial Mechanics. This work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems. In statistics, the Bayesian interpretation of probability was developed mainly by Laplace.

Laplace formulated Laplace's equation, and pioneered the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical physics, a field that he took a leading role in forming. The differential operator, widely used in mathematics, is also named after him. He restated and developed the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the Solar System and was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse. Laplace is remembered as one of the greatest scientists of all time. Sometimes referred to as the French Newton or Newton of France, he has been described as phenomenal natural mathematics faculty superior to that of any of his contemporaries.

Laplace became a count of the First French Empire in 1806 and was named a marquis 1817, after the Bourbon Restoration.

Born: 23rd March, 1749

Died: 5th March 1827

Nationality: French

Fields: Astronomer and Mathematician

Institutions: Ecole Militaire (1769-1776)

Known For: Predicting the existence of black holes, Bayesian inference, Bayesian probability, Laplace Equation, Laplacian, Laplace transform, Inverse Laplace transform, Laplace distribution, Laplace expansion, Laplace's Demon, Laplace Expansion, Young-Laplace equation, Laplace number, Laplace limit, Laplace invariant, Laplace principle, Laplace's principle of insufficient reason, Laplace's method, Laplace expansion, Laplace force, Laplace formula, Laplace filter, Laplace functional, Laplace matrix, Laplace motion, Laplace plane, Laplace pressure, Laplace resonance, Laplace's spherical, harmonics, Laplace smoothing, Laplace expansion, Laplace-Bayes estimator, Laplace-Stieltjes transform, Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector, Nebular hypothesis