Pierre-Simon Laplace

"Laplace" redirects here. For the city in Louisiana, see Laplace, Louisiana. Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (March 23 1749 - March 5 1827) was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825). This seminal work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics, used by Isaac Newton, to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems.
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