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Quote by Pierre-Simon Laplace

“However, the small probability of a similar encounter [of the earth with a comet], can become very great in adding up over a huge sequence of centuries. It is easy to picture to oneself the effects of this impact upon the Earth. The axis and the motion of rotation changed; the seas abandoning their old position to throw themselves toward the new equator; a large part of men and animals drowned in this universal deluge, or destroyed by the violent tremor imparted to the terrestrial globe.”

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Pierre-Simon Laplace

Pierre-Simon Laplace was a renowned French mathematician and astronomer born on March 23, 1749, and died on March 5, 1827. He is considered one of the founders of probability theory and celestial mechanics. Laplace's work in mathematics, astronomy, and probability has had a profound impact on the development of modern science. more

“If we imagine an observer to approach our planet from outer space, and, pushing aside the belts of red-brown clouds which obscure our atmosphere, to gaze for a whole day on the surface of the earth as it rotates beneath him, the feature, beyond all others most likely to arrest his attention would be the wedge-like outlines of the continents as they narrow away to the South.”

“In size the electron bears the same relation to an atom that a baseball bears to the earth. Or, as Sir Oliver Lodge puts it, if a hydrogen atom were magnified to the size of a church, an electron would be a speck of dust in that church.”

Ifs Would Be Earth Science Church Bears Baseball Relation Size Dust Atoms Hydrogen Electrons Specks Lodges Hydrogen Atom

Author:Waldemar Kaempffert

“In the course of the history of the earth innumerable events have occurred one after another, causing changes of states, all with certain lasting consequences. This is the basis of our developmental law, which, in a nutshell, claims that the diversity of phenomena is a necessary consequence of the accumulation of the results of all individual occurrences happening one after another... The current state of the earth, thus, constitutes the as yet most diverse final result, which of course represents not a real but only a momentary end-point.”

“In the course of this short tour, I became convinced that we must turn to the New World if we wish to see in perfection the oldest monuments of the earth's history, so far at least as relates to its earliest inhabitants.”

Ifs World Earth Science Turns Courses Wish Perfection Convinced Relate New World Monument

Book:Travels in North America, in the Years 1841-2: With Geological Observations on the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia

Source: Travels in North America, in the Years 1841-2: With Geological Observations on the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia

“In the first book I shall describe all the positions of the spheres, along with the motions which I attribute to the Earth, so that the book will contain as it were the general structure of the universe. In the remaining books I relate the motions of the remaining stars, and all the spheres, to the mobility of the Earth, so that it can be thence established how far the motions and appearances of the remaining stars and spheres can be saved, if they are referred to the motions of the Earth.”

Ifs Firsts Book Earth Science Universe Stars Position Structure Appearance Saved Relate Attributes Spheres Mobility

Book:On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

Source: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

“It is clear, then, that the earth must be at the centre and immovable, not only for the reasons already given, but also because heavy bodies forcibly thrown quite straight upward return to the point from which they started, even if they are thrown to an infinite distance. From these considerations then it is clear that the earth does not move and does not lie elsewhere than at the centre.”

Doe Earth Moving Science Lying Clear Elsewhere

Author:Aristotle

“It is in the nature of water ... to become transformed into earth through a predominating earthy virtue; ... it is in the nature of earth to become transformed into water through a predominating aqueous virtue.”

Earth Science Water Virtue Transformed

Book:De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum, being sections of the Kitāb al-shifâ: The Latin and Arabic texts, edited with an English translation of the latter and with critical notes

Source: De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum, being sections of the Kitāb al-shifâ: The Latin and Arabic texts, edited with an English translation of the latter and with critical notes

“It must not be thought that it is ever possible to reach the interior earth by any perseverance in mining: both because the exterior earth is too thick, in comparison with human strength; and especially because of the intermediate waters, which would gush forth with greater impetus, the deeper the place in which their veins were first opened; and which would drown all miners.”

Firsts Humans Earth Science Water Greater Perseverance Deeper Comparison Thick Interiors Veins Exterior Mining Miners Impetus Human Strength

Author:Rene Descartes

“Since, then, there is no objection to the mobility of the Earth, I think it must now be considered whether several motions are appropriate for it, so that it can be regarded as one of the wandering stars. For the fact that it is not the centre of all revolutions is made clear by the apparent irregular motion of the wandering stars, and their variable distances from the Earth, which cannot be understood in a circle having the same centre as the Earth.”

Thinking Made Facts Earth Science Stars Clear Revolution Understood Distance Circles Wander Appropriate Centre Objections Variables Mobility

Book:On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

Source: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

“The body of the earth is of the nature of a fish... because it draws water as its breath instead of air.”

Body Earth Science Water Air Draws Breaths Fishes

Book:The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

Source: The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

Quote by Pierre-Simon Laplace

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