Scientists by Period: Enlightenment Scientists, Medieval Scientists, Mikhail Lomonosov, Georg Forster, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Eugenio Espejo

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 28. Chapters: Enlightenment scientists, Medieval scientists, Mikhail Lomonosov, Georg Forster, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Eugenio Espejo, Josef Vratislav Monse, Medieval European scientists, Cornelius de Pauw, Vasily Karazin, Charles-Francois Dupuis. Excerpt: Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (23 March 1749 - 5 March 1827) (English pronunciation: ) was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mecanique Celeste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825). This work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems. In statistics, the so-called Bayesian interpretation of probability was mainly developed by Laplace. He formulated Laplace's equation, and pioneered the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical physics, a field that he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, widely used in mathematics, is also named after him. He restated and developed the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system and was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse. He is remembered as one of the greatest scientists of all time, sometimes referred to as a French Newton or Newton of France, with a phenomenal natural mathematical faculty superior to any of his contemporaries. He became a count of the First French Empire in 1806 and was named a marquis in 1817, after the Bourbon Restoration. Many details of the life of Laplace were lost when the family chateau burned in 1925. Laplace was born in Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy in 1749. According to W. W. Rouse Ball (A Short Account of the History of Mathematics, 4th edition, 19...