Pierre-Simon Laplace

Pierre-Simon Laplace was a brilliant mathematician and scientist who lived long before computers were invented. He used maths to understand and explain the world around him, including how ocean tides work. Many of his equations are still used today.

When Pierre-Simon was young, his father wanted him to become a priest. He went to a local religious school and then studied theology (religion) at university. While he was studying, he discovered that he was really good at maths, a subject he grew to love.

Pierre-Simon travelled to Paris to become a mathematician. There, he was introduced to a famous mathematician called Jean d’Alembert who was so impressed by him that he helped him to get a job as a professor of mathematics. Pierre-Simon wrote many mathematical papers and made some incredible scientific discoveries.

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Isaac Newton had discovered the laws of gravity 100 years earlier, but Pierre-Simon used them to explain the workings of the solar system. He was interested in how the universe began, where the planets came from and how they stayed in orbit. In fact, he was interested in everything, and used maths to explain the world around him, making important discoveries in physics, chemistry and biology. He even came close to the concept of black holes over 100 years before Einstein predicted their existence!

Pierre-Simon used maths to calculate how the oceans react to tidal forces (caused by the Moon’s gravitational pull). He took more factors into account than any scientist before, and the Laplace tidal equations are still used today to understand the behaviour of tides.

Pierre-Simon joined the Académie des Sciences (the French Academy of Science). He also got a job as an examiner for the French army. One of the young cadets he tested was 16-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte, who later became the ruler of France.

Pierre-Simon was popular with the French government and was made a count and later a marquis.

Pierre-Simon died in 1827. After his death, doctors removed and studied his brain. Surprisingly, it was smaller than average! Many of Pierre-Simon’s amazing discoveries are still used today and he is considered to be one of the greatest scientists of all time.