A Biography of Blaise Pascal.

Transcription

1 Jones - 1 G. Quade C. Jones 09/18/2017 A Biography of Blaise Pascal A Biography of Blaise Pascal. Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, France as the only son of Etienne Pascal and Antoinette Begon. Antoinette Pascal died when Pascal was only three years old, leaving Pascal without a mother (Biography.com). Etienne was a judge in the tax court of Clermont-Ferrand as well as a respected mathematician. In 1631, Etienne decided to move the family Paris, France as he pursued his scientific studies (Ball). When his children began demonstrating intellectual aptitude, Etienne decided to teach his children himself. In particular, most of Pascal's education focused on classical topics and the learning of both Latin and Greek; however, mathematics was forbidden because his father thought that the study of geometry would distract him from his studies (Biography.com). Without formal education in geometry, Pascal began developing the theory himself; he developed nonstandard nomenclature for geometric concepts. Upon realizing Pascal's determination in the subject, Etienne allowed Pascal a copy of Euclid's book on the subject (Biography.com). Eventually, Pascal began accompanying his father to meetings at Mersenne's Academy of Paris. Being only sixteen years of age, Pascal presented an essay based on the contemporary work of Girard Desargues to the Academy; the essay was entitled Essay on Conics, and it includes the first mention of

2 Jones - 2 Pascal's "Mystic Hexagram" which is known today as Pascal Theorem (Simpson, Biography.com). At the time, this theorem was an important advancement in the emerging study of projective geometry. The theorem states that when any six points are inscribed in a conic section, all the points of intersection between the lines formed by the extension of the two line segments opposite in the hexagon are all collinear (Simpson). After Pascal's death, Pascal's nephew discovered a collection of unpublished mathematical works; one of these works includes a complete treatise on conic sections (Simpson). In 1640, Etienne was appointed intendent of tax collections in Rouen, France, and the entire family relocated into the city. In order to assist his father with repetitive calculations, Pascal conceived of a mechanical calculator that operated by counting digits; his invention of the "Pascaline" calculator is widely accepted to be his claim to fame (Jerphagnon, Orcibal). It is said that Pascal manufactured 50 prototypes which included a total of 20 working models; however, the device was never widely disseminated because it was an expensive luxury (Biography.com). In 1642, Pascal validated the theories of Evangelista Torricelli regarding the cause of barometric pressure differences; he performed an experiment to measure atmospheric pressure at various altitudes. He concluded that the vacuum does exist above the earth; this was a challenge to the prevailing ideology of the many Aristotelians (Simpson). Indeed, Pascal was a forerunner of the modern scientific method; he knew that all scientific theories must be rigorously tested. From 1647 to 1648, he further developed his studies of pressures into papers on the topic of atmospheric vacuums (Simpson). Furthermore, he studied hydrostatics and developed "Pascal's Principle" of liquid pressures which states that any pressure on a confined liquid is transmitted throughout the liquid in all directions (Jerphagnon, Orcibal). In 1646, Pascal s father became seriously injured in an accident; while housebound, medical visits from two Jansenist brothers convinced Etienne convert the entire family to Jansenism

3 Jones - 3 (Biography.com). Prior to this event, the Pascal family had observed strict Roman Catholic practices. As a result, Pascal ventured to Port-Royal in January of 1655, and he endeavored to become a prominent religious scholar of Jansenism (Jerphagnon, Orcibal). In particular, Pascal wrote a series of letters from 1656 to 1657 known as Les Provinciales which defended the writings of Antoine Arnauld and the Jansenist beliefs; Antoine Arnauld was a theologian of Jansenist beliefs who was criticized by the Roman Catholic Church for his works (Biography.com). Beginning in 1657, Pascal began writing notes concerning the intellectual perspective of faith; these notes were posthumously published under the title Pensees. Indeed, it is Pensees that includes mention of "Pascal's Wager" which argues that it is logical to believe in a divine creator (Biography.com). In 1654, Pascal began correspondence with Pierre de Fermat on the subject of mathematical probability theory; Pascal's experiments yielded that there is a fixed likelihood for any specific outcome of the roll of a die (Biography.com). Pascal and Fermat essentially developed modern probability theory (Simpson). Much of Pascal's work on probability was kept unpublished in his work of Treatise on Arithmetical Triangle which also contains a description of the famous "Pascal's Triangle" (Simpson). Specifically, Pascal defined the triangle recursively in terms of the rows and columns of numbers within a grid; although Pascal was not the first individual to know of this construction, he definitely contributed to its dissemination by proving its usefulness through the demonstration of the relationships between entries within the table. He managed to prove various properties of the triangle including a result to allow the calculation of mathematical combinations in counting (Simpson). In 1658, Pascal sponsored a challenge to the mathematical community; this challenge included five problems one of which was to quantify the area under the cycloid curve; the problem of finding the area under the cycloid curve had previously perplexed all his contemporaries (Simpson). Not satisfied with the solutions provided in the contest, Pascal divulged his own solutions and declared himself the

4 Jones - 4 winner of the contest; future mathematicians would praise Pascal for both his ingenuity and the elegance of this particular solution (Simpson). Pascal is known to have suffered from both insomnia and a digestive disorder throughout the majority of his life; his constant work increased the toll on his health (Ball), and Pascal died of a stomach tumor on August 19, 1662 at the age of 39 years old (Biography.com). Pascal's works have been of great benefit to the fields of geometry, physics, and computer science. In the twentieth century, a unit of atmospheric pressure was invented, and it is named in homage of Pascal in recognition of his many scientific inquiries into the nature of atmospheric pressure and the atmospheric vacuum (Biography.com). Additionally, a computer programming language is named after Pascal in recognition of his work on one of the earliest forms of modern computing (Biography.com).

5 Jones - 5 Works Cited. Ball, Rouse. A Short Account of the History of Mathematics. A Short Account of the History of Mathematics, edited by David R. Wilkins, 4th ed., Jerphagnon, Lucien, and Jean Orcibal. Blaise Pascal. Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 19 Jan. 2017, Simpson, David. Blaise Pascal ( ). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Biography.com Editors. Blaise Pascal. Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 19 Nov. 2015,