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Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal was born on June 19,1623 in Clermont Ferrand, France. He has been credited in the field of mathematics for his imaginative and subtle work in geometry and other mathematical branches. His work influenced later generations of theologians and philosophers, helping to make mathematics what it is today. Blaise Pascal is considered part of the foundation of the very heart of math. At age twelve, Blaise mastered Euclid’s Elements, a three-volume work that states the principles of geometry for the first tine in formal style. In 1645, he invented and sold the first adding machine. His study of hydrostatics, a branch of physics that deals with fluids at rest and under pressure, led to the basic theorems of projective geometry. These theorems, which he formulated at age sixteen, became known as Pascal’s theorem. He proved that the level of mercury column in a barometer is determined by the increase or decrease in the surrounding atmospheric pressure rather than by a vacuum. This discovery verified the hypothesis of the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli, concerning the effect of atmospheric pressure on the equilibrium of liquids. After he published Essay Pour les Coniques (Essay on Conic or Elliptical Sections), Pascal temporarily abandoned the study of mathematics due to very poor health. He moved to Paris where he lived frivolously for several years. His interest in probability theory of the odds in gambling games led him to discover the Theory of Probability in conjunction with Pierre de Fermat. This theory dealt with the actuarial, mathematical, social statistics, and calculations used in today’s modern theoretical physics. At the end of 1654, after several months of severe depression, Pascal had a life-altering experience. He entered the Jansenist monastery in Port Royal where he once again began to publish mathematical studies. In 1658, he broke with the Jansenists and left the monastery. Pascal died on August 19, 1662 from cancer. His most famous work soon became Pensees (Thoughts) in which he tells of deeply personal meditations on human suffering and faith in God. Another major contribution of Pascal is Pascal’s Gears. Pascal’s Gears was the first mechanical computing machine ever invented. This machine has a series of interlocking discs and gears; each gear has a digit from zero to nine engraved upon it. A complete turn of any gear caused the gear to the left to make one-tenth of a rotation, displaying the next highest number. This mechanism was used in calculators and adding machines until the 1960’s, and is still used in car odometers. Pascal’s Law is by far the most important of his contributions. Written in 1653, it states that in fluid at rest, pressure on any surface exerts a force perpendicular to the surface and independent of the direction of orientation of the surface. The law includes the Principe that any additional pressure applied to a fluid will be transmitted equally to every point in the fluid. This law is the basis of machines involving hydraulic systems. Pascal discovered very essential concepts of mathematics, making it the way it is today. At the same time, he dwelled in philosophical and religious ideas and concepts. Through both of these ideas runs the common thread of logic, which says something about Pascal himself. Bibliography:

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