Pierre-Simon de Laplace

Pierre-Simon de Laplace was a French mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to understanding how the universe works. He developed mathematical tools to analyze the motions of planets and other celestial bodies, helping us better predict their paths. Laplace also formulated the idea that, if we knew all the positions and velocities of particles in the universe at a given moment, we could determine everything about the past and future—an idea called determinism. His work laid the foundation for modern physics, celestial mechanics, and probability theory, shaping our understanding of nature’s laws and the universe’s behavior.