Pierre Simon Laplace
Pierre Simon Laplace was born in Beaumont-en-Auge, France, on March 28, 1749.
His father’s occupation is not known, he could have been a small cottager or farm labourer. No one knows much about his early years. It is known, however, that his intelligence interested some wealthy neighbours and to them he owes his education to, beginning at a Benedictine Priory in Beaumont, starting when he turned 7. After 9 years there, he went to Caen University to study theology. It was there that he wrote his first mathematics paper.
At the age of 19 Pierre was appointed a chair of mathematics at the Ecole Militaire in Paris. In 1773 he became a member at the Paris Academy of Sciences. In 1785 he was an Examiner at the Royal Artillery Corps.
In 1786 he "proved that the eccentricities and inclinations of planetary orbits to each other always remain small, constant, and self correcting." This appears in his outstanding work Traite du Mecanique Celeste, which has been published in 5 volumes over 26 years. Another work, Theorie Analytique des Probabilities was published in 1812.
Other things he worked on during his life include: differential equations and geodesy coefficients, and contributions to the foundations if the mathematical science and magnetism.
Little is known about Pierre’s personal life, except that he was not a modest man, and was disliked by his colleagues.
Pierre Simon Laplace died in Paris, France on March 5, 1827.
By :Maggie