Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (/ l ə ˈ p l ɑː s /; French: [pjɛʁ simɔ̃ laplas]; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar and polymath whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy.He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five-volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics ...