Book Description

Often referred to as the Newton of France, Pierre Simon Laplace has been called the greatest scientist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He affirmed the stability of the solar system and offered a powerful hypothesis about its origins. A skillful mathematician and popular philosopher, Laplace also did pioneering work on probability theory, in devising a method of inverse probabilities associated with his classic formulation of physical determinism in the universe. With Lavoisier and several younger disciples, he also made decisive advances in chemistry and mathematical physics.

Roger Hahn, who has devoted years to researching Laplace's life, has compiled a rich archive of his scientific correspondence. In this compact biography, also based in part on unpublished private papers, Hahn follows Laplace's journey from would-be priest in the provinces to Parisian academician, popularizer of science during the French Revolution, religious skeptic, and supporter of Napoleon. By the end of his life, Laplace had become a well-rewarded dean of French science.

In this first full-length biography, Hahn illuminates the man in his historical setting. Elegantly written, Pierre Simon Laplace reflects a lifetime of thinking and research by a distinguished historian of science on the fortunes of a singularly important figure in the annals of Enlightenment science.

Book Description
Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827) is remembered amoung probabilitists today particularly for his "Theorie analytique des probabilites", published in 1812. The "Essai philosophique dur les probabilites" is his introduction for the second edition of this work. Here Laplace provided a popular exposition on his "Theorie". The "Essai", based on a lecture on probability given by Laplace in 1794, underwent sweeping changes, almost doubling in size, in the various editions published during Laplace's lifetime. Translations of various editions in different languages have apeared over the years. The only English translation of 1902 reads awkwardly today. This is a thorough and modern translation based on the recent re-issue, with its voluminous notes, of the fifth edition of 1826, with preface by Rene Thom and postscript by Bernard Bru. In the second part of the book, the reader is provided with an extensive commentary by the translator including valuable histographical and mathematical remarks and various proofs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting book, but not for everyone
I recommend this book to people with a science background that want a little light reading.This will probably not be very appealing to the layman. ... Read more

Book Description

Pierre-Simon Laplace was among the most influential scientists in history. Often referred to as the lawgiver of French science, he is known for his technical contributions to exact science, for the philosophical point of view he developed in the presentation of his work, and for the leading part he took in forming the modern discipline of mathematical physics. His two most famous treatises were the five-volume Traité de mécanique céleste (1799-1825) and Théorie analytique des probabilités (1812). In the former he demonstrated mathematically the stability of the solar system in service to the universal Newtonian law of gravity. In the latter he developed probability from a set of miscellaneous problems concerning games, averages, mortality, and insurance risks into the branch of mathematics that permitted the quantification of estimates of error and the drawing of statistical inferences, wherever data warranted, in social, medical, and juridical matters, as well as in the physical sciences.

This book traces the development of Laplace's research program and of his participation in the Academy of Science during the last decades of the Old Regime into the early years of the French Revolution. A scientific biography by Charles Gillispie comprises the major portion of the book. Robert Fox contributes an account of Laplace's attempt to form a school of young physicists who would extend the Newtonian model from astronomy to physics, and Ivor Grattan-Guinness summarizes the history of the scientist's most important single mathematical contribution, the Laplace Transform.

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1813 edition by Mme Ve Courcier, Paris. ... Read more

Book Description
Authors and essaysin this volume are:Sir Robert Stawell Ball: Atoms and Sunbeams -- The Wanderings of the North Pole

Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin): The Age of the Sun's HeatRichard Anthony Proctor: The Past and Future of our EarthRobert Simpson Woodward: Mathematical Theories of the EarthGiovanni Virginio Schiaparelli: The Rotation and Physical Constitution of the Planet Mercury -- The Planet Mars George Howard Darwin: Meteorites and Stellar Systems William Harkness: Magnitude of the Solar System

Ormsby McKnight Mitchel: The Stability of the Solar SystemEdmund Ledger: The New Planet, ErosEdward Singleton Holden:Sidereal Astronomy: Old and New-- Photography the Servant of Astronomy-- The Beginnings of American AstronomySir John Frederick William Herschel: Stellar Parallax Charles S. Hastings: The History of the TelescopeWilliam Huggins: Results of Spectrum Analysis Applied to Heavenly Bodies-- Celestial Spectroscopy-- The New Astronomy

David Gill: An Astronomer's Work in a Modern Observatory Pierre Simon: The System of the WorldCThe Nebular HypothesisGeorge M. Searle: Marquis de Laplace-- Are the Planets Habitable ? ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 960 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Pierre Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Determined Scientist.(Book review)
Author: Janis Langins
Publication: Canadian Journal of History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41Issue: 1Page: 120(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
In Two Volumes. This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more