(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
