BLAISE PASCAL

BLAISE PASCAL
( 1623 - 1662 )
Pascal was a famous mathematician, physicist and a philosopher. “When pressure is applied at any point in a fluid, it gets transmitted equally in all directions”. This is Pascala’s law. Any physics student can state this law. This has helped the inventions of Syringe, hydraulic press and brakes.

Pascal was born on June 19, 1623 in Clermont, France. His father was an accountant in an administrative office. Pascal was good in Mathematics. As 7 years old boy he could make geometrical figures on the ground. At the age of 12 he proved that the sum of the three angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. At the age of 17 he published an essay relating to mathematics which attracted famous scientist Descartes.

Once Pascal found his father working late in the night doing some calculations with difficulty. To reduce the pressure on his father, Pascal devised a calculating machine in 1642. It was operated by gear wheel. He patented it later.

Pascal invented a triangle which consists of rows of numbers arranged in a specific manner as shown above. It has proved much useful in the study of probability. Pascal did much work on probability, hydrostatics and integral calculus. He was a religious writer having few books to his credit.

He died on August 19, 1662 in Paris.