Mathematical Contributions of Blaise Pascal :: Biography Biographies Essays

Mathematical Contributions of Blaise Pascal Introduction Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623 in Clermont Ferrand. His nationality was french. He died in 1662. He was credited for his imaginative and subtle work in geometry and other branches of mathematics. His work influenced later generations of theologians and philosophers, helping make mathematics what it is today. Blaise Pascal is considered part of the foundation of the very heart of mathematics. History At age 12 he mastered Euclid's Elements. In 1645, he invented and sold the first adding machine. His study of hydrostatics led to the invention of the syringe and hydraulic press. At age 16, he formulated the basic theorems of projective geometry. These theorems 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. This discovery verified the hypothesis of the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli, concerning the effect of atmospheric pressure on the equilibrium of liquids. After publishing Essay pour les coniques (Essay on conic sections), Pascal temporarily abandoned the study of mathematics due to poor health. He lived in Paris for a while in a frivolous manner as a break. His interest in probability theory of the odds in gambling games lead 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 depression, Pascal had a life altering religious experience. He entered the Jansenist monastery in Port Royal. Here, he never published his own name again in his mathematical studies. He wrote a pseudonym to help in the struggle against the Jesuits for the defense of the Jansenist, Antoine Arnauld. In 1658, he broke with the Jansenists, and left the monastery. Pascal died on August 19, 1662 from cancer, at age 39. In his life, his most famous work was perhaps Pensees (thoughts). This was a set of deeply personal meditations in a somewhat fragmented form on human suffering and faith in God. Another famous work of his was called "Pascal's Wager." This expressed the conviction that belief in God is rational: If God does not exist, one stands to lose