BLAISE PASCAL
Birth: 19h June 1623/Death: 19h August 1662
Blaise Pascal is known to the world as a French mathematician, physicist,
religious philosopher and master of prose. He can be rightly called a man of letters, for so extensive was his knowledge and wisdom.
Pascal's father, Etienne Pascal, was a presiding judge of the tax court at Clermont-Ferrand. His mother died in 1626, when the boy was hardly three years old, and in 1631 the family moved to Paris. Just like his father he had shown great interest and ability in mathematics from the very childhood itself.
In 1640 he wrote an essay on geometry which was appreciated even by the great contemporaries like Rene Descartes. Between 1642 and 1644, Pascal conceived and constructed a calculating device to help his father in his tax computations.
The machine was his main claim to fame and in a sense it was the first digital calculator since it operated by counting integers.
Pascal was credited with the invention of the barometer and certain mathematical formulations that changed the scientific methods altogether. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities, formulated what came to be known as Pascal's law of pressure, and propagated a religious doctrine that taught the experience of God through the heart rather than through reason.
It was, in 1654, that Pascal was to have a mental crises and broke completely with his circle. Claiming to have had religious revelations, he went to join and live with his sister in the religious
community in which she had belonged. He was to continue with his writing, but it now took a distinct religious tone.
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