Laplace was born on March 23, 1749 in Beaumont-en-Auge, small town in lower Normandy of France. His father was in the cider business and also an official of the local parish. Laplace’s father wanted him to make a career in the Church, and in 1766 Laplace entered the University of Caen for theological training. However, his mathematical interests were apparent and encouraged to go Paris to meet d’Alembert. The story said that how d’Alembert gave Laplace difficult mathematical problems as a test of his ability and Laplace was able to solve them overnight. After that Laplace got a teaching position at the Ecole Militaire in Paris and lasted for the next seven years.
Although Laplace’s first contributions to mathematics were to solve difference equations using integral calculus, his main interest was to make the Newtonian World picture perfect. Laplace investigated the problems of celestial mechanics including the orbital eccentricities and the acceleration of the moon around the earth and resolved many of them. Laplace had extensive knowledge of other sciences and developing a reputation for arrogance, which made him unpopular with his fellow academicians. In May 1790 the Revolutionary Government charged the Academy of making recommendations for units of length, area, volume and mass with decimal subdivisions and multiples. It was the Laplace’s suggestion that the basic unit of length was named the metre. In 1796, Laplace published his first major work, the Explanation of the solar system, which is a scientific classic. It is believed that Laplace foresaw the concept of the black hole which were deduced much later in Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Although the main field of Laplace’s study was celestial mechanics, he also made significant contributions to the theory of probability and statistical inference. Laplace believed that mathematics could be brought to study on the social phenomenon through probability and suggested various applications. Laplace considered himself the best mathematician in France and as he grew older his arrogance increased. After his death an anonymous critic compared Laplace less than favourably to Euler and Lagrange. Laplace was notorious for his rapidity of his teaching and for his frequent use of the phrase ‘It is easy to see’, by which he skipped steps in his proof. In his own work he frequently neglected to acknowledge the source of his results and left ambiguous position of whether they were his own or not. Even so, Laplace became a senator and held the office of Chancellor. He was awarded France’s highest honours, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and the Order of the Reunion. Laplace’s political opportunism allowed him to engage in his scientific work, but his beliefs and theories began to be superseded as new discoveries undermined them. During his last years Laplace lived mainly on his estate in Arcueil. All his life he was generally healthy and vigorous. After a short illness he died on March 5, 1827 at Arcueil.
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