All the effects of Nature are only the mathematical consequences of a small number of immutable laws.
Interpretation
Nature operates according to fundamental mathematical laws that remain constant.
Pierre-Simon Laplace's quote reflects the idea that the complexities and phenomena we observe in nature can ultimately be traced back to a handful of unchanging mathematical principles. It suggests that beneath the surface of the natural world lies a structured and predictable framework governed by these immutable laws, emphasizing the relationship between mathematics and the natural sciences.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the predictability of natural phenomena in a science class.
Without any doubt, the regularity which astronomy shows us in the movements of the comets takes place in all phenomena. The trajectory of a simple molecule of air or vapour is regulated in a manner as certain as that of the planetary orbits; the only difference between them is that which is contributed by our ignorance. Probability is relative in part to this ignorance, and in part to our knowledge.
It is interesting thus to follow the intellectual truths of analysis in the phenomena of nature. This correspondence, of which the system of the world will offer us numerous examples, makes one of the greatest charms attached to mathematical speculations.
The word 'chance' then expresses only our ignorance of the causes of the phenomena that we observe to occur and to succeed one another in no apparent order. Probability is relative in part to this ignorance, and in part to our knowledge.
Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective positions of the beings which compose it, if moreover this intelligence were vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in the same formula both the movements of the largest bodies in the universe and those of the lightest atom; to it nothing would be uncertain, and the future as the past would be present to its eye.
The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness.
Probability theory is nothing but common sense reduced to calculation.
The only useful function of a statistician is to make predictions, and thus to provide a basis for action.
You have to remember that not every creature that was evolving left behind its skull or its tools for our convenience tens of thousands of years later. Most bones or most tools rot or get buried and are never found again.
I don't believe that the ultimate theory will come by steady work along existing lines. We need something new. We can't predict what that will be or when we will find it because if we knew that, we would have found it already!
We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.
Regardless of any deviations, it was clear I was supposed to end up in math and physics.
The sheer quantity of brain power that hurled itself voluntarily and quixotically into the search for new baseball knowledge was either exhilarating or depressing, depending on how you felt about baseball. The same intellectual resources might have cured the common cold, or put a man on Pluto.
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