Who is Blaise Pascal?
Blaise Pascal is one of the most important mathematicians in history because of his many accomplishments and useful contributions to a variety of branches in math. Blaise Pascal is a French mathematician as well as a physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher. At a young age Blaise Pascal had already began attending meetings of a mathematical academy. He was a genius as a young boy in many departments including science and math. His first well known accomplishment was his very important contribution to the study of fluids. While his career was already taking off Pascal had a hard life at home. His mother died when he was only 3, and he was left to live with his sisters, Gilberte and Jacqueline. Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623 in Clemont, France. Five short years after his mother died Pascal’s father Etienne Pascal moved his family to Paris, because of religious issues. Pascal’s father was a very well educated man and he too was very interested in mathematics and the sciences. Etienne Pascal decided to educate his children, especially Blaise who had wonderful potential. At the age of only 16 Blaise Pascal had discovered and written an essay (Essay of Conics) centering on the importance of the Mystic Hexagram. This was very popular and some even thought his father had written it because it was so advanced. This was one of Blaise’s many accomplishments in mathematics. Blaise Pascal died on August 19, 1622 in Paris at the young age of 39 but still contributed more to mathematics than 100 men could in a lifetime. Blaise Pascal’s many accomplishments including Pascal’s triangle, the mechanical calculator and his theories and many useful pieces of written work have majorly helped us today in educating young people in mathematics. There is no question that Blaise Pascal should win the Noble Prize. The Noble Prize doesn’t even begin to acknowledge and thank him for what he has done for math.