Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623–August 19,1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. Pascal was a child prodigy, who was educated by his father. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences, where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators and the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by expanding the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote powerfully in defence of the scientific method.

Life and family of a child prodigy

Born in Clermont, in the Auvergne region of France, Blaise Pascal lost his mother, Antoinette Begon, at the age of three. His father, Étienne Pascal (1588–1651), was a local judge and member of the petite noblesse, who also had an interest in science and mathematics. Blaise Pascal was brother to Jacqueline Pascal and two other sisters, only one of whom, Gilberte, survived past childhood.

Related Topics:
Clermont - Auvergne - France - 1588 - 1651

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In 1631, Étienne moved with his children to Paris. Étienne decided that he would educate his son, who showed extraordinary mental and intellectual abilities. Young Blaise showed immediate aptitude for mathematics and science, perhaps inspired by his father's regular conversations with Paris's leading geometricians, including Roberval, Mersenne, Desargues, Mydorge, Gassendi, and Descartes. At the age of eleven, he composed a short treatise on the sounds of vibrating bodies and Étienne responded by forbidding his son to further pursue mathematics until the age of fifteen, so as not to harm his study of Latin and Greek. One day Étienne found Blaise (now twelve) writing on the wall with a piece of coal an independent proof that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. Thenceforth, the boy was allowed to study Euclid.

Related Topics:
1631 - Paris - Roberval - Mersenne - Desargues - Mydorge - Gassendi - Descartes - Latin - Greek - Angle - Triangle - Right angle - Euclid

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Particularly of interest to the young Pascal was the work of Desargues. Following Desargues's thinking, at age sixteen Pascal produced a treatise on conic sections, Essai pour les coniques ("Essay on Conics"). Most of it has been lost, but an important original result has lasted, now known as Pascal's theorem. Pascal's work was so precocious that Descartes, when shown the manuscript, refused to believe that the composition was not by his father.

Related Topics:
Conic sections - Pascal's theorem

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In 1638, Étienne's opposition to fiscal relations of Cardinal Richelieu caused the family to flee Paris. It was only when Jacqueline performed well in a children's play performed in front of Richelieu that Étienne was pardoned. By 1639, the family had moved to Rouen where Étienne became a tax collector.

Related Topics:
1638 - Cardinal Richelieu - 1639 - Rouen

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At age eighteen Pascal constructed a mechanical calculator, called Pascal's calculator or the Pascaline, capable of addition and subtraction, to help his father with this work. The Zwinger museum, in Dresden, Germany, exhibits one of his original mechanical calculators. Though these machines stand near the head of the development of computer engineering, the calculator failed to be a great commercial success. Pascal continued to make improvements to his design through the next decade and built a total of fifty machines.

Related Topics:
Pascal's calculator - Zwinger - Museum - Dresden - Germany - Computer engineering

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