Pierre-Simon Laplace

Pierre-Simon Laplace was born 23 March 1749 in France and trained a mathematical mind that contemporaries called superior to nearly anyone alive. His five-volume Mécanique céleste, published between 1799 and 1825, translated Newton's geometric mechanics into the language of calculus and opened physics to problems geometry couldn't touch. He refined the nebular hypothesis of how the Solar System formed, derived a better speed of sound than Newton had managed, and pioneered the Laplace transform and the differential operator that still carry his name. In statistics he developed the Bayesian interpretation of probability; in thought experiments he imagined an all-knowing intellect - Laplace's demon - that could predict everything if it knew every position and velocity in the universe. Napoleon sat his exam at the École Militaire in 1785; two decades later the same emperor made him a count, and the restored Bourbons named him a marquis in 1817. He died 5 March 1827, sometimes called the French Newton, having rewritten much of what Newton left behind.