[TROU NOIR] LAPLACE, Exposition du Système du Monde, 1796
LAPLACE, Pierre-Simon de.
Exposition du Système du Monde.
Paris, Imprimerie du cercle social, An IV [1796].
Two parts in one 8vo (245x195 mm), 314-(4) pages / 312-(4) pages. binding : Full paper binding. Binding slightly rubbed.
First edition.
Mathematician and physicist, Laplace (1749-1827) this "French Newton" is one of the most influential scientists of the Napoleonic period.
The book was very successful and was reissued five times with each reissue some changes by the author.
If the term "black hole" was not created until 1967, the principle was however already imagined by Laplace in his System of the world: "A luminous star of the same density as the earth, and whose diameter would be two hundred and fifty times larger than that of the sun, would not allow any of its rays to reach us by virtue of its attraction; it is therefore possible that the largest luminous bodies in the universe are thereby invisible. II, p.305).
This hypothesis considered fanciful will be removed from the third edition.
references: DSB [Suppl. p. 343 : "This book proved to be one of the most successful popularizations of science ever composed. (...) The ' Système du monde ' appeared in 1796. The two volume work consists of five books. Book I begins with what any attentive observer may see if he will open his eyes to the spectacle of the heavens on a clear night with a view of the whole horizon. Book II sets out the real motions of planets, satellites and comets and gives the dimensions of the solar system. Book III is a verbal précis of the laws of motion as understood in eighteenth-century rational mechanics, with special reference to astronomy and hydrostatics. In book IV Laplace in effect summarized his own work in gravitational mechanics. The topics are perturbations in planetary motions, the shape of the earth, the attraction of spheroids and the rings of Saturn, motions of the tides and atmosphere, the moons of Jupiter, precession and lunar motions. Book V contains material that Laplace had not written up in technical form or pre-supposed. It gives an overview of the history of astronomy and concludes with the speculation since called the nebular hypothesis and another on the nature of the universe in outer space. Laplace kept his book alive and abreast of his thinking and work throughout his life."].
Price : 1000 €
