Connor Boles Boles
1
Mr. Percival
Astronomy
7 Jan. 2013
Biography:
Pierre Simon Laplace
Pierre Simon Laplace was a well known astronomer born in
France in 1749. He was known as the French Newton, playing a big part in the
evolution of sciences and mathematics, mostly astronomy and statistics. Throughout
his time he was able to increase his social stature through the science
community and was well known and respected in his time. He is known as one of
the most influential astronomers of his time.
Even from an early childhood he had showed promise, which
is why his wealthy neighbors forwarded his education so that he could grow to
be more than his original family rank permitted him to be. He was very
religious from an early start, mainly his fathers’ desire, and he went to the
University of Caen to study theology as his father wished. He never graduated
from the college and chose to leave so that he could study mathematics. He had
gotten a textbook for mathematics and as the myth goes he read and understand
the book over only a few days and soon after he was admired by many of his
colleagues. He was recommended for a teaching position and soon after that was
his occupation.
That was when Laplace’s life truly began. He was able to
start a family and study what he wanted to while securing a stable income. In
1776 he made his first discovery in astronomy, solving a problem that had
eluded many of the best minds of that time for many years. The problem was
concerning observational astronomy, it was the apparent instability while
Jupiter’s orbit seemed to be shrinking while Saturn’s was expanding. Although
that was not as easy to solve as the math problems Laplace was able to solve it
and help bring light to the confusing matter. It expanded on Newtonian gravity.
Along with this he also contributed greatly to the subfield of spherical
harmonics. He was one of them who introduced the topic although he had to give
some of the credit to one of his colleagues Legendre he was given most of the
credit for the research. He used to have part in the name however it never
caught on and it maintained the name of spherical harmonics. He also had a big
part in formulating the Potential Theory. His work mostly concerned velocity
and gravity and he expanded on many of Newton’s laws. His theories and formulas
still help calculate some of the things in space today.
Pierre Simon Laplace died in 1827 in Paris at the age of
77. He achieved the title of count in France in 1806 and was likely the most
prestigious astronomer at that time for that portion of the world. Although he
was an astronomer he mostly worked on the mathematical aspects and did not do
very much observing compared to some other astronomers however when his
formulas are applied they are soundproof and he remains one of the most notable
mathematical astronomers in history.
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