Pierre-simon laplace contributions in math
•
Quick Info
Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, France
Paris, France
Biography
Pierre-Simon Laplace's father, Pierre Laplace, was comfortably well off in the cider trade. Laplace's mother, Marie-Anne Sochon, came from a fairly prosperous farming family who owned land at Tourgéville. Many accounts of Laplace say his family were 'poor farming people' or 'peasant farmers' but these seem to be rather inaccurate although there is little bevis of academic achievement except for an uncle who is thought to have been a secondary school teacher of mathematics. This is stated in [1] in these terms:-There is little record of intellectual distinction in the family beyond what was to be expected of the cultivated provinci•
Laplace, Pierre-Simon Marquis de
Copyright notice This article Pierre-Simon Marquis de Laplace was adapted from an original article by Hans Fischer, which appeared in StatProb: The Encyclopedia Sponsored by Statistics and Probability Societies. The original article ([http://statprob.com/encyclopedia/PierreSimonMarquisDeLAPLACE.html StatProb Source], Local Files: pdf | tex) is copyrighted bygd the author(s), the article has been donated to Encyclopedia of Mathematics, and its further issues are under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License'. All pages from StatProb are contained in the Category StatProb. Pierre-Simon Marquis de LAPLACE
b. 23 March 1749 - d. 5 March 1827
Summary.
Pierre-Simon Laplace was the most prominent exponent of 19th century probability theory. His major probabilistic work, the Théorie analytique des probabilités considerably influenced the development of mathematical probability and statistics right to the beginning of the 20t
•
Pierre Simon Laplace (1749 - 1827)
From `A Short Account of the History of Mathematics' (4th edition, 1908) by W. W. Rouse Ball.
Pierre Simon Laplace was born at Beaumont-en-Auge in Normandy on March 23, 1749, and died at Paris on March 5, 1827. He was the son of a small cottager or perhaps a farm-labourer, and owed his education to the interest excited in some wealthy neighbours by his abilities and engaging presence. Very little is known of his early years, for when he became distinguished he had the pettiness to hold himself aloof both from his relatives and from those who had assisted him. It would seem from a pupil he became an usher in the school at Beaumont; but, having procured a letter of introduction to D'Alembert, he went to Paris to push his fortune. A paper on the principles of mechanics excited D'Alembert's interest, and on his recommendation a place in the military school was offered to Laplace.
Secure of a competency, Laplace now threw himself into original