Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont France on June 19, 1623, and

died in Paris on Aug. 19, 1662. His father, a local judge at Clermont, and

also a man with a scientific reputation, moved the family to Paris in 1631,

partly to presue his own scientific studies, partly to carry on the education of

his only son, who had already displayed exceptional ability. Blaise was kept

at home in order to ensure his not being overworked, and it was directed

that his education should be at first confined to the study of languages, and

should not include any mathematics. Young Pascal was very curious, one

day at the age of twelve while studying with his tutor, he asked about the

study of geometry. After this he began to give up his play time to persue the

study of geometry. After only a few weeks he had mastered many properties

of figures, in particular the proposition that the sum of the angles of a

triangle is equal to two right angles. His father noticed his sons ability in

mathematics and gave him a copy of Euclids's Elements, a book which

Pascal read and soon mastered. At the young age of fourteen he was

admitted to the weekly meetings of Roberval, Mersenne, Mydorge, and

other French geometricians. At the age of sixteen he wrote an essay on

conic sections; and in 1641 at the age of 18 he construced the first

arithmetical machine, an instrument with metal dials on the front on which

the numbers were entered. Once the entries had been completed the answer

would be displayed in small windows on the top of the device. This device

was improved eight years later. His correspondence with Fermat about this

time shows that he was then thurning his attention to analytical geometry

and physics. At this time he repeated Torricelli's experiments, by which the

pressure of the atmosphere could be estimated as a weight, and he

confirmed his theory of the cause of barometrical variations by obtaining at

the same instant readings at different altitudes on the hill of Puy-de-Dôme.

A strange thing about Pascal was that in 1650 he stoped all he reasearched

and his favorite studies to being the study of religion, or as he sais in his

Pensees, "contemplate the greatness and the misery of man." Also about this

time he encouraged the younger of his two sisters to enther the Port Royal

society. In 1653 after the death of his father he returned to his old studies

again, and made several experiments on the pressure exerted by gases and

liquids; it wasalso about this period that he invented the arithmetical

triangle, and together with Fermat created the calculus of probabilities. At

this time he was thinking about getting married but an accident caused him

to return to his religious life.While he was driving a four horse carrige the

two lead horses ran off the bridge. The only thing that saved him was the

traces breaking. Always somewhat of a mystic, he considered this a special

summons to abandon the world of science and return to his studies of

religion. He wrote an account of the accident on a small piece of paper,

which for the rest of his life he wore next to his heart, to remind him of his

covenant. Shortly after the accident he moved to Port Royal, where he

continued to live until his death in 1662. Besides the arithmetical machine

and Pascals Theorem, Pascal also made the Arithmetical Triangle in 1653

and his work on the theory of probabilities in 1654.