Blaise

Pascals Life Blaise Pascal is a French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist. He is also considered to be Westerns greatest intellect in the history of math, physical science, and philosophy. Pascal was born in June 19, 1623 in Auvergnes, France, presently known as Clermont Ferrand. Pascal died thirty-nine years later in August 19, 1662 due to illness. Pascals father, Etienne Pascal, was a lawyer in France and also an amateur in mathematics. Sadly, Pascal never really knew his mother, Antoinette Begon. Pascal was the third child of three siblings. He had two sisters who were all raised by their single father. Pascals father did not allow his son to attend regular public school, but instead was home school and taught by his father. His father taught daily and also hired a personal tutor for extra help. His father also discouraged teaching Pascal math until he reached the age of fifteen. All math related books were removed out from the house. Pascal was taught more literature subjects. Little did Pascals father discovered about his sons talent in math and science. At the young age of 12, Pascal was able to figure out the sum of a triangle by himself. He figured that the sum of triangle are equal the sum of two right angles. After his father discovered this talent, he allowed his son to follow mathematician Euclid.

In Pascals early years of childhood, he followed his father for schooling and even worked for his father. Pascals family left from his home town, when he was nine-years old from Clermont Ferrand and settled in Paris, where his father became a local judge. In 1639, Pascals family left Paris and moved to Rouen where his father was appointed to be a tax collector for upper Normandy. At that time, Pascal was sixteen years old, and wrote an intelligent essay called, Essay Pur Les Coniques on Pascals Theorm. This explains that if a hexagon is placed on a conic, with all sides touching the lines, the three intersecting points will lie in on the straight hexagon line.(2) Pascal was interested in helping his father with tax calculations and started working on his first calculator invention in 1642. He succeeded in inventing the mechanical calculator and went into business selling it to the public. His calculator called, Pascaline, was limited to the simple function of adding and subtracting. Pascaline was quite popular in sales, but low in demands in the later years, which put his business to an end after about ten years. In 1645, young Pascal contributed to physical science with his intellect as well. He was doing a series of experiments on atmospheric pressure. At that time, he had followed Evangelista Torricellis barometers experiment of tube filled with mercury placed upside-down in a bowl of mercury. This experiment helped him understand pressure. The following year, Pascal had proved to his satisfaction that a vacuum existed. In August of 1648 Pascal observed that the pressure of the atmosphere decreases with height and deduced that a vacuum existed above the atmosphere. Pascals law explained that pressure is constant in a vacuum. He also came up with the syringe and hydraulic press, which uses hydraulic pressure to

multiply force. The equation is also known as, (P1V1)= (P2V2), where P is pressure and V is volume.(3) Church and religion was a big influence to life and politics during the 16th century. For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret.(1) Pascal faith was initially Catholic, but in 1646, he met a leading Jansenism, Antoine Arnaulde, who introduced and converted his faith to Dutch philosophy Jansenists, the faith of free grace, which went against the church. The Jesuits, also known as the Society of Jesus, condemned the idea of his beliefs and Jansenists. In 1651, Pascals father died and his sister Jacqueline committed herself to nunnery at Port-Royal. This saddens Pascal because she left although he begged trying to convince her to stay with him. Their father signed over inheritance to them, and Jacqueline signed hers over to Pascal. But in 1953, he decided to transfer them back his sisters inheritance over to Port-Royal. In 1653, he also made a discovery with geometric arrangements of binomial coefficients. This method of mathematics is known as Pascals Triangle and is used for many different things such as: Fibonacci, finding prime numbers in algebra, and many more.(8) Between the years 1648 to 1654, Pascal fell into the worldly experience with drinking, gambling, and womanizing. Although after coming out of that lifestyle, in 1654, a mathematician name Pierre de Fermat and Pascal came up with what he is presently famous for presently, mathematical theory of probabilities. Later he used this philosophy known as Pascals Wagner.(4) This

probability theory also opened up the ground work for calculus of probabilities for Gottfried Leibnizs work on infinitesimal calculus. In winter of 1954, he had a vision after he became unconscious during a carriage accident by a bridge. He made a note of this vision once, which is now referred to as, Memorial. Memorial notes, Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars" and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen." . (5)(The note was discovered in his coat after his death.). After this incident, he stopped contributing to mathematics and was focused more on religion and carried out strongly with his belief in Pascals Wagner. He believes that life is a win-win situation and there is nothing to lose just by believing in the existence of God. Between 1655-1659, he traveled regularly from Paris to Port Royal to meet with Jansenists. In 1656, Pascal began writing and publishing his first literary work on religion called, Provincial Letters.(6) This publication attacked Catholic on use of casuistry, which is reasonings to justify moral laxity and sin. The publication was very well written and even Voltaire said that it was the best publication in France. In 1660, King Louis XIV ordered these publications to be burned, and in 1661, Jansesnist school at Port-Royal finally came to an end and shut down. King Louis XIV abolished Jansenists movements, and in the final works of Pascal, crit sur la signature du formulaire,(7) told Jansenist not to give in. Pascal stopped pursuing the Jansenist movement when his sister died in 1661. His illness became very serious in 1662 and checked in a hospital, which doctors said that he was incurable. He died on August 16, 1662 alone in his sisters house.

Blaise Pascal was a very intelligent man as a young boy being home schooled and contributed greatly to modern day math and science in his short years. His contribution in mathematics, physical science, and philosophy is still widely used and history shows that his work has also set the foundation of many other mathematic methods. His important contribution of intelligence are: Pascals Triangle, Pascals probability also later applied to as Pascals Wagner, Pascals Theorem on geometry, Pascals pressure and volume relationship, and invention of syringe and calculator.

Pascals Triangle:

Pascals Volume=Pressure:

Pascals Theorem:

Citation: 1. http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Quotations/Pascal.html 2. http://2000clicks.com/MathHelp/GeometryTriangleCyclicPascal.aspx 3. http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K- 12/WindTunnel/Activities/Pascals_principle.html 4. http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/wager.html 5. http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~eknuth/pascal.html 6. http://philosophy.eserver.org/pascal-provincial-letters.txt 7. http://www.patent-invent.com/electricity/inventors/blaise_pascal.html 8. http://ptri1.tripod.com/