Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749-1827: A Life in Exact SciencePrinceton University Press, 2018 M06 5 - 336 pages 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. |
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... each multiplied by a function of x taken at will . It had been while investigating certain 3 [ 1771b ] , p . 299 . 4 Ibid . , p . 330 . 5 [ 1774b ] , OC , 8 , p . 5 . problems in the theory of chance , so Laplace said THEORY OF CHANCE 9.
... investigations in the theory of chance had led him to the formulation of recurro - recurrent series . The latter part of the memoir illustrates how they might be applied to the solution of several problems concerning games of chance ...
... “ Histoire , ” p . 18. On the interplay between Condorcet and Laplace here , see Gillispie , ( 1972 ) and Brian ( 1994 ) , part I , chapter 5 . Laplace here proposed to investigate problems of the second type PROBABILITY OF EVENTS 15.
A Life in Exact Science Charles Coulston Gillispie. Laplace here proposed to investigate problems of the second type . He began on the basis of a theorem that , like the definition of probability in the previous memoir , he enunciated ...
... investigation of the source of departures from the results that equipossibility would entail . Second , the multiplication of observations would provide the basis for calculat- ing from experience the value of the prior probabilities ...
Contents
LAPLACE IN HIS PRIME 17781789 | 65 |
SYNTHESIS AND SCIENTIFIC STATESMANSHIP | 147 |
LAPLACIAN PHYSICS AND PROBABILITY | 197 |
THE LAPLACE TRANSFORM | 257 |
Conclusion | 271 |
Abbreviations | 280 |
Bibliography | 281 |
Index | 319 |
Other editions - View all
Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science Charles Coulston Gillispie,Robert Fox,I. Grattan-Guinness No preview available - 1997 |