Pierre And Probability Copyright 2016 By Miranda Perry

2 Pierre and Probability Copyright  © 2016 by Miranda Perry All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. 3 Pierre and Probability By Miranda Perry 4 5 Once upon a time, a French boy named Pierre-Simon Laplace was born on March 23, 1749 in Beaumont-en-Auge France. We don’t know a lot about his financial state growing up. His father may have been a peasant farmer, or he may have been successful in the cider trade (Burton). 6 7 Pierre’s father really wanted him to get a job in the Church, and after Pierre got a little older, he went to the University of Caen. He stayed at the university from the time he was 16 years old to around the time he turned 19. Pierre was studying theology, but during that time discovered his love for mathematics (Hawking)! 8 9 When he left the University of Caen, he traveled to Paris. Paris was a great center of mathematical and scientific accomplishments in France, which made it a good place for Pierre to keep studying math (Britannica). 10 I’m very impressed! 11 While he was in Paris, Pierre really impressed the French mathematician Jean Le Rond d’Alembert. d’Alembert gave Pierre a difficult problem to solve and told him he had a week to do it. Pierre solved the problem over the course of a single night (Burton)! 12 13 Because of Pierre’s super math skills, d’Alembert got him a job at the École Militaire where he would teach math courses for a few years. Pierre didn’t particularly like that job because