| RefNo | MS/242/41 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from Pierre Simon de Laplace to Thomas Young, dated at Paris |
| Date | 6 October 1817 |
| Description | Handwritten letter, autograph has been cut-out and Young added "Mr Laplace" to te end.
Thanking Young for his letter describing his work on optics and his theory on the waves of light. Laplace is not convinced by the experiments and thinks that [René] Descartes' and [Johannes] Kepler's explanations still stand.
[Henry Kater] will carry two treatises soon to be published in the Connaissance des Tems, one on the pendulum and the other applies probability to geodesy for Young's perusal, and some corrections to a philosophical essay on probability for [Humphrey] Davy to insert in his copy.
Kater also communicated his measures of the length of pendulum in London, Laplace considers the experiments as exact and the process ingenious although expresses some doubt on the suspension.
Provides on the side the formula to calculate the length of the pendulum, using the standard yard of the Royal Society as a reference and a temperature of 60o Farenheit. |
| Language | French |
| Extent | 3p |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA7947 | Young; Thomas (1773 - 1829); physician, physicist and Egyptologist | 1773 - 1829 |
| NA5191 | Laplace; Pierre Simon (1749 - 1827); Marquis de Laplace | 1749 - 1827 |