Laplace, Pierre Simon, Marquis de 1749-1827
French mathematician and astronomer

Born in Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, he studied at Caen, went to Paris and became Professor of Mathematics at the �cole Militaire, where he gained fame by his research on the inequalities in the motion of Jupiter and Saturn and the theory of the satellites of Jupiter. In 1799 he entered the Senate, becoming its Vice-President in 1803. He was created marquis by Louis XVIII in 1817. His astronomical work culminated in the publication of the five monumental volumes of M�canique c�leste (1799-1825), the greatest work on celestial mechanics since Isaac Newton's Principia. His Syst�me du monde (1796, Eng trans in 2 vols, The System of the World, 1830) is a non-mathematical exposition of all his astronomical theories, and his famous nebular hypothesis of planetary origin occurs as a note in later editions. In his study of the gravitational attraction of spheroids he formulated the fundamental differential equation in physics which bears his name. He also made important contributions to the theory of probability.

Bibliography: Roger Hahn, Laplace as a Newtonian Scientist (1967)