2009-04-19 18:04:00
Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749 – 1827) was one of the greatest mathematicians in history, although, as a human being, many things have been said about him, and few of them good. He had a self-interested desire to please the powerful, in fact, he managed to navigate the troubled waters of the French Revolution and survive the restoration of the monarchy after the fall of Napoleon. Where others lost their heads, he knew how to carry it very high and on his shoulders.
His magnificent intelligence left an indelible mark on multiple fields of knowledge. In mathematics he was a true genius whose achievements embarrass many science students, who tremble at the sight of his famous “Laplacian” and its accompanying equations.
In astronomy, he enunciated the “nebular hypothesis” to explain the formation of the Solar System. According to his vision, the Sun, the planets and the rest of the bodies that orbit around it, were formed from an enormous cloud of incandescent gas that rotated around its center of mass. As the cloud cooled, it contracted into successive rings that, in turn, cooled and condensed, giving rise to the planets.
Laplace studied the stability of the Earth-Moon system. He explained the relationship between lunar acceleration and changes in the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit. This analysis served to complete his demonstration that all the bodies of the Solar System form a stable group that moves through the vacuum of space.
They say that Laplace, always inclined to flatter the powerful, presented Napoleon with the first of the five volumes of his “Celestial Mechanics”, a compendium of knowledge that contained the analytical methods to determine the orbits of the planets, their shape and the influences of the tides The emperor consulted his advisors and one of them told him that, in the work, there was not a single mention of the name of God. Napoleon, who enjoyed embarrassing his interlocutors with embarrassing questions, told him: “Monsieur Laplace, they tell me that you have written this thick book on the system of the Universe and you have not even mentioned the Creator of it.” The genius, who, despite being very restrained with politicians, did not allow the slightest objection to his philosophical vision, stepped back and answered bluntly, “I have not needed such a hypothesis.”
Listen to his biography. It starts like this:
Once upon a time there was a boy, the son of a poor farmer, who lived in a beautiful village in Normandy called BEAUMONT EN AUGE. Due to his social condition, he was predestined to inherit his father’s job and live by working in the fields. But little PIERRE SIMON was not a child like the others. He was haughty, arrogant, ambitious, calculating, and extremely intelligent. From an early age he also learned to cultivate the art of flattery and thanks to this he won the affection of a wealthy neighbor who offered to pay for his studies.
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