Pierre-Simon Laplace

Born: 23 March 1749 in Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, France

Died: 5 March 1827 in Paris, France

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 evidence of academic achievement except for an uncle who is thought to have been a secondary school teacher of mathematics. This is stated in in these terms:-

There is little record of intellectual distinction in the family beyond what was to be expected of the cultivated provincial bourgeoisie and the minor gentry.

Laplace attended a Benedictine priory school in Beaumont-en-Auge, as a day pupil, between the ages of 7 and 16. His father expected him to make a career in the Church and indeed either the Church or the army were the usual destinations of pupils at the priory school. At the age of 16 Laplace entered Caen University. As he was still intending to enter the Church, he enrolled to study theology. However, during his two years at the University of Caen, Laplace discovered his mathematical talents and his love of the subject. Credit for this must go largely to two teachers of mathematics at Caen, C Gadbled and P Le Canu of whom little is known except that they realised Laplace's great mathematical potential.

Once he knew that mathematics was to be his subject, Laplace left Caen without taking his degree, and went to Paris. He took with him a letter of introduction to  d'Alembert from Le Canu, his teacher at Caen. Although Laplace was only 19 years old when he arrived in Paris he quickly impressed  d'Alembert. Not only did  d'Alembert begin to direct Laplace's mathematical studies, he also tried to find him a position to earn enough money to support himself in Paris. Finding a position for such a talented young man did not prove hard, and Laplace was soon appointed as professor of mathematics at the École Militaire. Gillespie writes in:-

Imparting geometry, trigonometry, elementary analysis, and statics to adolescent cadets of good family, average attainment, and no commitment to the subjects afforded little stimulus, but the post did permit Laplace to stay in Paris.

He began producing a steady stream of remarkable mathematical papers, the first presented to the Académie des Sciences in Paris on 28 March 1770. This first paper, read to the Society but not published, was on maxima and minima of curves where he improved on methods given by  Lagrange. His next paper for the Academy followed soon afterwards, and on 18 July 1770 he read a paper on  difference equations.

Laplace's first paper which was to appear in print was one on the integral calculus which he translated into Latin and published at Leipzig in the Nova acta eruditorum in 1771. Six years later Laplace republished an improved version, apologising for the 1771 paper and blaming errors contained in it on the printer. Laplace also translated the paper on maxima and minima into Latin and published it in the Nova acta eruditorum in 1774. Also in 1771 Laplace sent another paper Recherches sur le calcul intégral aux différences infiniment petites, et aux différences finies to the Mélanges de Turin. This paper contained equations which Laplace stated were important in mechanics and physical astronomy.

The year 1771 marks Laplace's first attempt to gain election to the Académie des Sciences but  Vandermonde was preferred. Laplace tried to gain admission again in 1772 but this time Cousin was elected. Despite being only 23 (and Cousin 33) Laplace felt very angry at being passed over in favour of a mathematician who was so clearly markedly inferior to him.  D'Alembert also must have been disappointed for, on 1 January 1773, he wrote to  Lagrange, the Director of Mathematics at the Berlin Academy of Science, asking him whether it might be possible to have Laplace elected to the Berlin Academy and for a position to be found for Laplace in Berlin.

Before  Lagrange could act on  d'Alembert's request, another chance for Laplace to gain admission to the Paris Academy arose. On 31 March 1773 he was elected an adjoint in the Académie des Sciences. By the time of his election he had read 13 papers to the Academy in less than three years.  Condorcet, who was permanent secretary to the Academy, remarked on this great number of quality papers on a wide range of topics.

We have already mentioned some of Laplace's early work. Not only had he made major contributions to difference equations and  differential equations but he had examined applications to mathematical astronomy and to the  theory of probability, two major topics which he would work on throughout his life. His work on mathematical astronomy before his election to the Academy included work on the inclination of planetary orbits, a study of how planets were perturbed by their moons, and in a paper read to the Academy on 27 November 1771 he made a study of the motions of the planets which would be the first step towards his later masterpiece on the stability of the  solar system.

Laplace's reputation steadily increased during the 1770s. It was the period in which he:-

... established his style, reputation, philosophical position, certain mathematical techniques, and a programme of research in two areas, probability and celestial mechanics, in which he worked mathematically for the rest of his life.

The 1780s were the period in which Laplace produced the depth of results which have made him one of the most important and influential scientists that the world has seen. It was not achieved, however, with good relationships with his colleagues. Although  d'Alembert had been proud to have considered Laplace as his protégé, he certainly began to feel that Laplace was rapidly making much of his own life's work obsolete and this did nothing to improve relations. Laplace tried to ease the pain for  d'Alembert by stressing the importance of  d'Alembert's work since he undoubtedly felt well disposed towards  d'Alembert for the help and support he had given.

It does appear that Laplace was not modest about his abilities and achievements, and he probably failed to recognise the effect of his attitude on his colleagues.  Lexell visited the Académie des Sciences in Paris in 1780-81 and reported that Laplace let it be known widely that he considered himself the best mathematician in France. The effect on his colleagues would have been only mildly eased by the fact that Laplace was right! Laplace had a wide knowledge of all sciences and dominated all discussions in the Academy. As  Lexell wrote:-

... in the Academy he wanted to pronounce on everything.

It was while  Lexell was in Paris that Laplace made an excursion into a new area of science:-

Applying quantitative methods to a comparison of living and nonliving systems, Laplace and the chemist Antoine Lavoisier in 1780, with the aid of an ice calorimeter that they had invented, showed respiration to be a form of combustion.

Although Laplace soon returned to his study of mathematical astronomy, this work with Lavoisier marked the beginning of a third important area of research for Laplace, namely his work in physics particularly on the theory of heat which he worked on towards the end of his career.

In 1784 Laplace was appointed as examiner at the Royal Artillery Corps, and in this role in 1785, he examined and passed the 16 year old Napoleon Bonaparte. In fact this position gave Laplace much work in writing reports on the cadets that he examined but the rewards were that he became well known to the ministers of the government and others in positions of power in France.

Laplace served on many of the committees of the Académie des Sciences, for example  Lagrange wrote to him in 1782 saying that work on his Traité de mécanique analytique was almost complete and a committee of the Académie des Sciences comprising of  Laplace, Cousin,  Legendre and  Condorcet was set up to decide on publication. Laplace served on a committee set up to investigate the largest hospital in Paris and he used his expertise in probability to compare mortality rates at the hospital with those of other hospitals in France and elsewhere.

Laplace was promoted to a senior position in the Académie des Sciences in 1785. Two years later  Lagrange left Berlin to join Laplace as a member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. Thus the two great mathematical geniuses came together in Paris and, despite a rivalry between them, each was to benefit greatly from the ideas flowing from the other. Laplace married on 15 May 1788. His wife, Marie-Charlotte de Courty de Romanges, was 20 years younger than the 39 year old Laplace. They had two children, their son Charles-Emile who was born in 1789 went on to a military career.

Laplace was made a member of the committee of the Académie des Sciences to standardise weights and measures in May 1790. This committee worked on the metric system and advocated a decimal base. In 1793 the Reign of Terror commenced and the Académie des Sciences, along with the other learned societies, was suppressed on 8 August. The weights and measures commission was the only one allowed to continue but soon Laplace, together with Lavoisier,  Borda,  Coulomb,  Brisson and  Delambre were thrown off the commission since all those on the committee had to be worthy:-

... by their Republican virtues and hatred of kings.

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