On The Figure of The Earth
During the years 1784–1787 he published some memoirs of exceptional power. Prominent among these is one read in 1783, reprinted as Part II of Théorie du Mouvement et de la figure elliptique des planètes in 1784, and in the third volume of the Mécanique céleste. In this work, Laplace completely determined the attraction of a spheroid on a particle outside it. This is memorable for the introduction into analysis of spherical harmonics or Laplace's coefficients, and also for the development of the use of what we would now call the gravitational potential in celestial mechanics.
Read more about this topic: Pierre-Simon Laplace
Famous quotes containing the words figure and/or earth:
“Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and
they that dwell therein.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm XXIV (l. XXIV, 1)