Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal
(1623-1662)

    Blaise Pascal lived in 17th Century France, Pascal is still known as a great mathematician. Pascal first began to study math in 1635. He read and memorized the Euclid's Elements by the age of 12. Pascal did not intend school so his talent in math was known until he mastered the Euclid's Elements. Blaise attended lectures and mathematical gatherings in his teenage years.
When Blaise turned 16, he began to participate actively in the mathematical gatherings. At these gatherings, Pascal became the principal disciple of “Girard Desargues,” (a professor working there because he was the only one who appreciated his work in geometry.) Pascal began to work on conics and he eventually published many papers pertaining to geometry. Pascal lost a year of research in 1641 because he became ill.
    In 1642, Pascal began to invent a counting machine. After his first attempts failed, Pascal stopped working on the calculator for a couple years. In 1644 he returned the calculator idea because of the encouragement he received. Pascal finished the calculator in 1645 after trying more than 50 incarnations of the design.
    Pascal worked on many mathematical problems, including principals of fluids and gases.  In 1646 he proved that the mercury in a barometer did not move because of a vacuum but rather because of barometric pressure. Pascal also created the "Pascal's Triangle." This is used to calculate probabilities of winning in gambling
Pascal died from cancer in 1662 at the age of 39. Pascals famous sayings
 



Pascals Adding Machine

    Blaise Pascal had a very important role in the development of computers. At the age of eighteen, he constructed the first arithmetical machine. Eight years later he further improved this machine. Pascal was also becoming highly interested in analytical geometry and physics. He repeated Torricelli's experiments. (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 a hill. In 1653 Pascal had to administer his father's estate. There he conducted several experiments on the pressure exerted by gases and liquids. Pascal also invented the arithmetical triangle, and together with Fermat created the calculus of probabilities.

arithmetical machine


Pascals Triangle

    Pascal employed his arithmetical triangle in 1653, but no account of his method was printed till 1665. The triangle is constructed as in the figure below, each horizontal line being formed form the one above it by making every number in it equal to the sum of those above and to the left of it in the row immediately above it; ex. gr. the fourth number in the fourth line, namely, 20, is equal to 1 + 3 + 6 + 10.
 
 


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Bibliography | Howard Aiken | Charles Babbage | Hopper