Biography of Blaise Pascal

(1623/06/19 - 1662/08/19)

Blaise Pascal
French physicist, mathematician, and philosopher

He was born June 19, 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand. He moved with his family to Paris in the year 1629.
When he was 16 years old he formulated one of the Basic theorems of projective geometry, known as Pascal's theorem and described in his essay on conics (1639). In 1642, he devised the first machine to calculate mechanical. Through an experiment showed in 1648 that the level of the column of mercury in a barometer determines it the increase or decrease of the surrounding atmospheric pressure.
In 1654 along with Pierre de Fermat, formulated mathematical probability theory, fundamental mathematics, actuarial statistics and calculations of modern theoretical physics. Other contributions include the deduction of the so-called 'Pascal principle', which establishes that fluids transmitted pressure with the same intensity in all directions and his research on the infinitesimal quantities.
In 1654 he entered the community jansenist of Port Royal, where he led an ascetic life until his death. In 1656 he wrote his 18 provincial, that attacking the Jesuits by their attempts to reconcile the naturalism of the 16th century with Orthodox Catholicism.
Blaise Pascal died in Paris on August 19, 1662.