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Scientific Patronage and Rivalry in Laplace's Early Career

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Scientific Patronage and Rivalry in Laplace's Early Career SCIENTIFIC PATRONAGE AND RIVALRY IN LAPLACE’S EARLY CAREER by Menolly Lysne B.Sc., Simon Fraser University, 2007 a Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Department of Mathematics c Menolly Lysne 2010 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2010 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for Fair Dealing. Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. APPROVAL Name: Menolly Lysne Degree: Master of Science Title of Thesis: Scientific Patronage and Rivalry in Laplace's Early Career Examining Committee: Dr. Mary Catherine Kropinski Chair Dr. W. Tom Archibald, Senior Supervisor Dr. Razvan Fetecau, Supervisor Dr. JF Williams, Examiner Date Approved: May 20, 2010 .. 11 Declaration of Partial Copyright Licence The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection (currently available to the public at the “Institutional Repository” link of the SFU Library website <www.lib.sfu.ca> at: <http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/112>) and, without changing the content, to translate the thesis/project or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. While licensing SFU to permit the above uses, the author retains copyright in the thesis, project or extended essays, including the right to change the work for subsequent purposes, including editing and publishing the work in whole or in part, and licensing other parties, as the author may desire. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Last revision: Spring 09 Abstract Before the French Revolution, access into the elite echelon of French society, including aca- demic society, was almost entirely restricted to those of noble birth. Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) was one of the exceptions to this rule; he entered the French scientific commu- nity based on his merit as a scientist and his ability to obtain powerful patrons. We will discuss the influence of Laplace’s patrons on his personal, professional and scholarly life by looking at primary documents from his early career, mostly on differential equations. While Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717-1783) was one of Laplace’s most influential patrons, he was not the only. We will look at the impact of not only d’Alembert but also the other patrons in Laplace’s early life. Laplace’s career was equally shaped by the influence of scientific rivalry. Rivalry can be seen as having positive or negative effects. Positive rivalry can lead an individual to produce work of the highest calibre, in reaction to the work of a competitor. The friendships that Laplace developed with contemporaries, such as Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), can be seen as containing rivalries leading to innovative work. As a negative influence, rivalry can lead to priority disputes and result in rifts between those involved. Laplace’s early career contained both positive and negative rivalries: both of which we will examine. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Tom Archibald for his assistance throughout this process and his patience in reading early drafts, which had frequent typographical errors. As well, I would like to thank Roger Hahn for meeting with me and giving me advice on possible additions to my subject. I would also like to thank Bobak Shahriari and Jim Verner for helping me write the Matlab program that is used in this thesis and fixing bugs that developed from my inability to use this program. While my ability to read French has greatly improved in the process of writing this thesis, I would like to think Bobak Shahriari for assistance with French nuances and Aki Avis for proofreading first drafts of my translation attempts. I would also like to thank Dr. Archibald for translations from Euler’s original Latin. For their support and encouragement I would also like to thank my family and friends. iv Contents Approval ii Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv Contents v List of Figures viii 1 Introduction 1 2 Laplace’s Biography from 1749-1789 8 I The Impact of Patronage 13 3 D’Alembert 14 3.1 Professional Patronage . 17 3.1.1 Employment at École Militaire . 17 3.1.2 Membership in Paris Académie des Sciences . 19 3.1.3 Comparison to Rousseau . 20 3.2 Academic Patronage . 22 3.2.1 Citing d’Alembert . 23 3.3 Praising d’Alembert by Deriding his Rivals . 25 3.3.1 Daniel Bernoulli . 26 3.3.2 Clairaut . 27 v 3.3.3 Euler . 28 4 Other Patrons 29 4.1 Lavoisier . 29 4.2 Becoming Examiner of the Artillery . 31 II The Impact of Rivalry 35 5 Lagrange 36 6 Laplace and Asymptotics 43 6.1 Laplace’s Initial Use of Perturbation Theory . 45 6.2 Brief Note on the Nature of a Function . 46 6.2.1 Remarks on Notation . 47 6.2.2 Setting up the Physical Model . 48 6.2.3 Setting up the Equations . 49 6.2.4 The Simplification . 52 6.2.5 General Solution and Potential Problems . 56 6.3 Generalization . 58 7 Variation of Parameters 65 7.1 Laplace’s Method for Finding Singular Solutions: 1772 . 66 7.1.1 Problem 1 . 68 7.1.2 Problem 2 . 73 7.1.3 Discussion of secular inequalities . 77 7.2 Comparison with Lagrange’s Method for Finding Singular Solution: Varia- tions of Constants: 1774 . 77 7.2.1 Article 1 . 79 7.2.2 Article 2 . 81 7.2.3 Article 3 . 82 7.3 Lagrange’s Extension to the Theory of Chance: Variation of Parameters: 1775 84 7.4 Lagrange’s Extension to Perturbation Theory: Variation of Parameters: 1776 87 7.5 The Role of Friendship and Rivalry . 90 vi 8 Other Rivals 94 8.1 Condorcet . 94 8.2 Legendre . 96 9 Conclusion 99 A Appendix: Original French of Translated Material 102 A.1 Letter from d’Alembert to le Canu: August 25, 1769 . 102 A.2 Letter from Laplace to d’Alembert: November 15, 1777 . 103 A.3 Letter from d’Alembert to Lagrange: January 1, 1773 . 103 A.4 Laplace’s Theorem 1 from Sur les solutions particulières . 103 A.5 Laplace’s Theorem 2 from Sur les solutions particulières . 104 A.6 Lagrange’s graphical definition of singular solution . 104 A.7 Lagrange’s three remarks when the perturbing forces are zero . 104 B Appendix: Comparison of Laplace’s Approximation 106 Bibliography 109 vii List of Figures 6.1 Reproduction of Laplace’s diagram to show his system involving a corpuscle transmitting gravity . 48 7.1 Laplace’s diagram describing a singular solution . 69 B.1 Comparison of Laplace’s Approximation to Numerical Solution . 107 B.2 Error between Laplace’s Approximation and Numerical Solution . 108 viii Chapter 1 Introduction Before the French Revolution, access into the elite echelon of French society, including aca- demic society, was almost entirely restricted to those of noble birth. Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) was one of the exceptions to this rule; he entered the French scientific community based on his merit as a scientist and his ability to obtain powerful patrons. Laplace arrived in Paris in 1769 and quickly began to make a name for himself. Laplace showed himself to be an adept mathematician, but this was not often enough to guarantee the meteoric rise in position that Laplace experienced. Within five years of moving to Paris, Laplace had obtained employment as professor of mathematics at the École Militaire, been elected to the Académie des Sciences and made himself financially self-sufficient. Laplace himself did not believe the rise was as quick as it should have been, as he perceived himself to have been repeatedly snubbed by the Académie while people who Laplace believed to be less talented and deserving were promoted before himself. With this in mind, when he was elected, he was much younger than the average age of newly elected members. Laplace did have a sudden rise to fame and this can be attributed to the networking that he did just as much as his inherent talents as a mathematician. This thesis will look at the dual influence that early patronage and rivalry played in Laplace’s career and how the results of these influences can be seen in the early work that Laplace produced.
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