Blaise Pascal

	Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont on June 19, 1623.  When he was going through 
school he was kept at home and wasn't allowed to learn mathematics, he was confined mainly 
to the study of languages.  Of course like most people who are told they cant do something 
the want to learn more, so this made Pascal want to find out something about mathematics.  
He asked his tutor about it and gave up his play-time to study geometry.  When he was 14 
he was admitted to the weekly meetings with French geometricians.  At 16 he wrote an essay 
on conic sections, and at the age of 18 he constructed the first arithmetical machine.  
Between his years of 17 and 18 he also suffered from insomnia and acute depression.  
Pascal invented the first digital calculator to help his father with his work collecting 
taxes.  He worked on it for three years between 1642 and 1645. The machine was called the 
Pasciline and was one of the worlds first calculators.  
	
	He invented the syringe and the hydraulic press after studying hydrostatics. In 
1647, a couple of years after publishing "Essay pour les coniques" or "Essay on Conic 
Sections", Blaise gave up on the study of mathematics because of his poor health.  Pascal 
began a series of experiments on atmospheric pressure.  Pascal observed that the pressure 
of the atmosphere decreases with height and deduced that a vacuum existed above the 
atmosphere.  By 1647 he had proved to his satisfaction that a vacuum existed.  He then 
became interested in probability and calculating odds from the gambling games he played.  
Pascal invented the arithmetical triangle in 1653. The triangle is constructed by each 
horizontal line being formed form the one above it by making every number in it equal to 
the sum of those above and to the left of it in the row immediately above it.
	
	At the end of 1654, religion changed his life, the main reason for this was an 
almost fatal hoarse and carriage accident.  His horse's ran off and led the carriage 
towards a bridge.  The only thing that saved his life was the braces on the bridge.  He 
joined the Jansenist monastery at Port-Royal. There he resumed his study of mathematics. 
In 1658, he broke up with the Jansenists and left the monastery and continued his study 
of mathematics with calculus and probability. 
His last work was on the cycloid, the curve traced by a point on the circumference of a 
rolling circle. In 1658 Pascal started to think about mathematical problems again as he 
lay awake at night unable to sleep for pain. He applied Cavalieri's calculus of 
indivisible to the problem of the area of any segment of the cycloid and the center 
of gravity of any segment. He also solved the problems of the volume and surface area 
of the solid of revolution formed by rotating the cycloid about the x-axis.	
	
	Towards the end of his life Pascal took little interest in science and spent his 
last years giving to the poor and going from church to church in Paris attending one 
religious service after another. At the age of 39, Blaise Pascal died of a cancer growth 
in his stomach that spread to the brain. His most famous work is the "Pensees" or 
"Thoughts". Pascal said "if God does not exist, one stands to lose nothing by believing 
in him anyway, while if he does exist, one stands to lose everything by not believing."