Biography

Blaise Pascal is a French mathematician, mechanic, physicist, writer and philosopher. Classic of French literature, one of the founders mathematical analysis, the theory of probability and projective geometry, the creator of the first samples of calculating technology, the author of the basic law of hydrostatics.

Childhood

Pascal was born in the city of Clermont-Ferrand (French province of Auvergne) in the family of the chairman of the tax administration Etienne Pascal and Antoinette Begon, daughter of the Seneschal of Auvergne. The Pascals had three children - Blaise and his two sisters: the youngest - Jacqueline and the eldest - Gilberte. Mother died when Blaise was 3 years old. In 1631 the family moved to Paris.

Blaise grew up as a gifted child. His father, Etienne, took care of the boy's education on his own; Etienne himself was well versed in mathematics - he was friends with Mersennom and Desargues, discovered and investigated a previously unknown algebraic curve, since then called "Pascal's snail", was a member of the commission for determining longitude, created by Richelieu.

Pascal the father adhered to the principle of matching the complexity of the subject to the mental abilities of the child. According to his plan, Blaise was supposed to study ancient languages ​​from the age of 12, and mathematics from the age of 15-16. The teaching method was to explain general concepts and rules and the subsequent transition to the study of individual issues. So, introducing an eight-year-old boy to the laws of grammar common to all languages, his father pursued the goal of teaching him to think rationally. There were constant conversations in the house on questions of mathematics and Blaise asked to acquaint him with this subject. The father, fearing that mathematics would prevent his son from studying Latin and Greek, promised to introduce him to this subject in the future. Once, to his son's next question about what geometry is, Etienne briefly replied that this is a way to draw correct figures and find proportions between them, but he forbade him to do any research in this area. However, Blaise, left alone, began to draw various figures on the floor with charcoal and study them. Not knowing geometric terms, he called the line a "stick" and a circle a "ringlet". When Blaise's father accidentally caught one of these independent lessons, he was shocked: the boy, who did not even know the names of the figures, independently proved Euclid's 32nd theorem on the sum of the angles of a triangle. On the advice of his friend Le Payer, Etienne Pascal abandoned his original curriculum and allowed his son to read math books. During his leisure hours, Blaise studied Euclidean geometry, and later, with the help of his father, moved on to the works of Archimedes, Apollonius and Pappus, then Desargues.

In 1634 (Blaise was 11 years old), someone at the dinner table stabbed a faience dish with a knife. It sounded. The boy noticed that as soon as he touched the dish with his finger, the sound disappeared. To find an explanation for this, Pascal conducted a series of experiments, the results of which were later presented in the "Treatise on Sounds".

From the age of 14, Pascal participated in the weekly Mersenne seminars held on Thursdays. Here he met Desargues. Young Pascal was one of the few who studied his works, written complicated language and saturated with newly invented terms. He refined the ideas expressed by Desargues, generalizing and simplifying the reasoning. In 1640, Pascal's first printed work was published - "An Experiment on Conical Sections", the result of a study of the works of Desargues. In this essay, the author included theorems (no proofs are given), three definitions, three lemmas, and indicated the chapters of the planned work devoted to conical sections. The third lemma from "Experience ..." is Pascal's theorem: if the vertices of a hexagon lie on some conical section, then three intersection points of straight lines containing opposite sides lie on one straight line. Pascal expounded this result and 400 consequences from it in the "Complete work on conic sections", the completion of which Pascal announced fifteen years later and which would now be attributed to projective geometry. "Complete work ..." was never published: in 1675 it was read in a manuscript by Leibniz, who recommended Pascal's nephew Etienne Perrier to urgently publish it. However, Perrier did not listen to Leibniz's opinion, and later the manuscript was lost.

Rouen

In January 1640 the Pascal family moved to Rouen. During these years, Pascal's health, already unimportant, began to deteriorate. Nevertheless, he continued to work.

Blaise's father by nature of service in Rouen (intendant in Normandy) often dealt with tedious calculations, his son also helped him in the distribution of taxes, duties and taxes. Faced with traditional ways calculations and, finding them inconvenient, Pascal conceived a computing device that could help simplify calculations. In 1642 (at the age of 19), Pascal began to create his "Pascaline" summing machine, in this, by his own admission, he was helped by the knowledge gained in early years... Pascal's car looked like a box filled with numerous gears connected to each other. The numbers to be added or subtracted were entered by the corresponding rotation of the wheels, the principle of operation was based on the counting of revolutions. Since the success in the implementation of the idea depended on how accurately the artisans reproduced the sizes and proportions of the machine parts, Pascal himself was present in the manufacture of its components. Soon Pascal's car was forged in Rouen by a watchmaker who did not see the original and built a copy, guided only by stories about the "counting wheel". Despite the fact that the fake machine was completely unsuitable for performing mathematical operations, Pascal, hurt by this story, left work on his mechanism. To encourage him to continue improving the machine, his friends brought it to the attention of Chancellor Segier. He, having studied the project, recommended Pascal not to stop there. In 1645, Pascal presented Seguier with a finished model of the car. Until 1652, under his supervision, about 50 versions of the "Pascaline" were created. In 1649, he received the royal privilege of a calculating machine: both copying of Pascal's model and the creation of any other types of summing machines without his permission were prohibited; their sale by foreigners within France was prohibited. The amount of the fine for violating the ban was three thousand livres and had to be divided into three equal parts: for admission to the treasury, the Paris hospital and Pascal, or the owner of his rights. The scientist spent a lot of money on the creation of the machine, but the complexity of its manufacture and high cost impeded the commercial implementation of the project.

The principle of coupled wheels, invented by Pascal, became the basis for the creation of most adding machines for almost three centuries.

In 1646, the Pascal family, through the doctors who treated Etienne, became acquainted with Jansenism. Blaise, having studied Jansenia's treatise "On the transformation inner man"Criticizing the pursuit of" greatness, knowledge, pleasure ", has doubts: is not his scientific research a sinful and god-loathing occupation? Of the whole family, it is he who is most deeply imbued with the ideas of Jansenism, experiencing his "first conversion". However, he does not leave his studies in science so far.

Experiments with a Torricelli pipe

At the end of 1646, Pascal, having learned from an acquaintance of his father about the Torricelli pipe, repeated the experience of the Italian scientist. Then he made a series of modified experiments, trying to prove that the space in the tube above the mercury is not filled with its vapors, or rarefied air, or some kind of "fine matter". In 1647, already in Paris and despite the aggravated illness, Pascal published the results of his experiments in the treatise "New Experiments Concerning Emptiness". In the final part of his work, Pascal argued that the space in the upper part of the tube "is not filled with any substances known in nature ... and this space can be considered really empty, until the existence of any substance there is experimentally proved." This was preliminary proof of the possibility of emptiness and that Aristotle's hypothesis of "fear of emptiness" has limits.

Subsequently, Pascal focused on proving that a column of mercury in a glass tube is held back by air pressure. At Pascal's request, his son-in-law Florent Perrier conducted a series of experiments near the Puy-de-Dôme in Clermont and described the results (the difference in the height of the column of mercury at the top and at the foot of the mountain was 3 inches 1 1/2 lines) in a letter to Blaise. In Paris, on the Saint-Jacques tower, Pascal himself repeats the experiments, fully confirming Perrier's data. In honor of these discoveries, a monument to the scientist was erected on the tower. In "The Story of the Great Experiment on the Equilibrium of Liquids" (1648), Pascal cited his correspondence with his son-in-law and the consequences arising from this experience: now there is an opportunity to "find out if two places are on the same level, that is, are they equally distant from the center of the earth, or which of them is located higher, no matter how far they are from each other. "

Pascal also noted that all the phenomena previously attributed to "fear of emptiness" are in fact the consequences of air pressure. Summarizing the results obtained, Pascal concluded that air pressure is a special case of the equilibrium of liquids and the pressure inside them. Pascal confirmed Torricelli's hypothesis about the existence of atmospheric pressure. Developing the results of Stevin and Galileo's research in the field of hydrostatics in his "Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids" (1653, published in 1663), Pascal approached the establishment of the law of pressure distribution in liquids. In the second chapter of the treatise, he forms the idea of ​​a hydraulic press: "a vessel filled with water is a new principle of mechanics and a new machine for increasing forces to the desired degree, because with the help of this means a person will be able to lift any weight offered to him" and notes that his principle action obeys the same law as the principle of action of a lever, block, endless screw. Pascal entered the history of science, starting with a simple repetition of Torricelli's experiment, he refuted one of the basic axioms of old physics and established the basic law of hydrostatics.

In 1651, his father, Etienne Pascal, died. The younger sister, Jacqueline, went to the Port-Royal monastery. Blaise, who had previously supported his sister in her pursuit of monastic life, fearing the loss of a friend and helper, asked Jacqueline not to leave him. However, she remained adamant.

Savor. "The Mathematics of Chance"

Pascal's habitual life was over. His state of health is also deteriorating: doctors prescribe to reduce mental stress. Pascal is more often in society, strikes up secular relations. In the spring of 1652, in the Lesser Luxembourg Palace, at the Duchess, d'Aiguillon demonstrated his arithmetic machine and set up physical experiments, earning general admiration. Pascal's machine aroused the interest of the Swedish queen Christina - at the request of Abbot Bourdeleau, the scientist presented her with one copy of his invention. During this period, Pascal experienced a revival of interest in research, the desire for fame, which he suppressed under the influence of the teachings of the Jansenists.

The closest of the aristocratic friends for the scientist was the Duke de Roanne, who was fond of mathematics. In the duke's house, where Pascal lived for a long time, he was assigned a special room. Through Roanne, Pascal met a rich man and passionate gambler Damier Mitton, an erudite cavalier de Mere. Reflections based on observations made by Pascal in secular society later entered his "Thoughts".

Cavalier de Mere, a big fan of gambling, proposed to Pascal in 1654 to solve some problems that arise under certain gaming conditions. De Mere's first problem - about the number of throws of two dice, after which the probability of winning exceeds the probability of losing - was solved by himself, Pascal, Fermat and Roberval. In the course of solving the second, much more complex problem, in the correspondence between Pascal and Fermat, the foundations of the theory of probability were laid. Scientists, solving the problem of the distribution of bets between players with an interrupted series of games (it was dealt with by the Italian mathematician of the 15th century Luca Pacioli), used each of their own analytical methods for calculating probabilities and came to the same result. Information about the investigations of Pascal and Fermat pushed Huygens to study the problems of probability, who formulated in his essay "On Calculations in Gambling" (1657) the definition of mathematical expectation. Pascal creates "Treatise on the Arithmetic Triangle" (published in 1665), where he explores the properties of "Pascal's triangle" and its application to the calculation of the number of combinations, without resorting to algebraic formulas. One of the applications to the treatise was the work "On the summation of numerical degrees", where Pascal proposes a method for calculating the degrees of numbers in a natural series.

Pascal has many plans for the future. In a letter to the Paris Academy (1654), he announced that he was preparing a fundamental work entitled "The Mathematics of Chance."

Port Royal

First, he lives in the castle of Vaumurier with the Duke de Luin, then, in search of solitude, he moves to the suburban Port-Royal. He completely stops doing science as sinful. Despite the harsh regime followed by the hermits of Port-Royal, Pascal feels a significant improvement in his health and is experiencing a spiritual upsurge. From now on, he becomes an apologist for Jansenism and devotes all his strength to literature, directing his pen to defend "eternal values". He makes a pilgrimage to Parisian churches (he went around them all). Prepares for "small schools" Jansenists a textbook "Elements of Geometry" with appendices "On the Mathematical Mind" and "The Art of Persuasion".

"Letters to the Provincial"

The spiritual leader of Port Royal was one of the most educated people at that time - the doctor of the Sorbonne Antoine Arnault. At his request, Pascal joined the Jansenist polemic with the Jesuits and created Letters to a Provincial, a brilliant example of French literature containing fierce criticism of the order and the propaganda of moral values ​​set forth in the spirit of rationalism. Beginning with a discussion of the dogmatic differences between the Jansenists and the Jesuits, Pascal moved on to condemn the latter's moral theology. Without admitting a transition to personalities (most of the fathers of the order led an impeccable life), he condemned the casuistry of the Jesuits, which, in his opinion, led to a decline in human morality.

The Letters were published in 1656-1657 under a pseudonym and caused a considerable scandal. Pascal risked getting into the Bastille, he had to hide for some time, he often changed his place of residence and lived under a false name. Voltaire wrote: “Attempts were made to different ways show the Jesuits disgusting; Pascal did more: he made them funny. "

Cycloid research

Having abandoned systematic studies in science, Pascal nevertheless occasionally discusses mathematical questions with friends, but is not going to engage in scientific work anymore. The only exception was basic research cycloids (as friends said, he took up this problem to distract himself from toothache). In one night, Pascal solves the Mersenne cycloid problem and makes a number of discoveries in its study. At first, Pascal was reluctant to make his findings public. But his friend the Duke de Roanne persuaded to arrange a competition for solving problems to determine the area and center of gravity of a segment and the volumes and centers of gravity of bodies of revolution of a cycloid among mathematicians of Europe. Many renowned scientists took part in the competition: Wallis, Huygens, Ren and others. Although not all participants solved the tasks, important discoveries were made in the process of working on them: Huygens invented the cycloidal pendulum, and Wren determined the length of the cycloid. The jury, chaired by Karkavi, recognized Pascal's solutions as the best, and his use of the method of infinitesimal in his works further influenced the creation of differential and integral calculus.

"Thoughts"

Around 1652, Pascal planned to create a fundamental work - "The Apology of the Christian Religion." One of the main goals of "Apology ..." was to be a criticism of atheism and the defense of faith. He constantly pondered the problems of religion, his plan changed over time, but various circumstances prevented him from starting to work on the work, which he conceived as the main work of life. Beginning in the middle of 1657, Pascal made fragmentary notes for "Apology ..." on separate sheets, classifying them according to themes. He shared his plans with the hermits of Port-Royal in the fall of 1658; Pascal allotted himself ten years to create the book. The disease prevented him: from the beginning of 1659 he made only fragmentary notes, the doctors forbade him any mental stress, but the patient managed to write down everything that came into his head, literally on any available material. Later, he could not even dictate and stopped working. After Blaise's death, Jansenist friends found sheaves of such notes tied with twine. About a thousand excerpts have survived, differing in genre, volume and degree of completeness. They were deciphered and published in a book called “Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects” (French Pensées sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets), then the book was simply called “Thoughts” (French Pensées). They are mainly devoted to the relationship between God and man, as well as the apologetics of Christianity in the Jansenist sense. "Thoughts" entered the classics of French literature, and Pascal became the only great writer in modern history and a great mathematician at the same time. Pascal wrote in his latest book:

“Not only is it impossible, but also useless to know God without Jesus Christ” “There are only three categories of people: some have found God and serve Him; these people are intelligent and happy. Others have not found and are not looking for Him; these people are insane and unhappy. Still others have not found, but seek Him; these people are reasonable, but so far unhappy. " The same manuscript contained a dialogue, the so-called "Fragment of a Bet" or Pascal's Bet, where the author concludes with his interlocutor, whom he wishes to induce to live in accordance with Christian morality, a bet on the existence of God. The author proposes to estimate the probabilities of gain and loss and argues that faith (there is a gain - God is) brings good, while in an unfavorable outcome (loss - there is no God) the losses are negligible.

Last years

Since 1658, Pascal's health has deteriorated rapidly. According to modern data, throughout his life, Pascal suffered from a complex of diseases: brain cancer, intestinal tuberculosis and rheumatism. He is overcome by physical weakness, and terrible headaches appear. Huygens, who visited Pascal in 1660, found him a very old man, despite the fact that at that time Pascal was only 37 years old. Pascal understands that he will soon die, but does not feel fear of death, telling his sister Gilberte that death takes away from a person "the unfortunate ability to sin." Unable to read, write, or reflect, he does charity work and occasionally visits old friends.

In the fall of 1661, Pascal shared with the Duke de Roanne the idea of ​​creating a cheap and accessible way to travel in multi-seat carriages. The Duke created a joint stock company to implement this project and on March 18, 1662, the first route opened in Paris public transport, later called the omnibus.

In October 1661, in the midst of a new round of Jansenist persecution, sister Jacqueline dies. It was a hard blow for Pascal.

At the same time, the authorities demanded that the Porto-Royal community unconditionally sign a form condemning the five provisions of Jansenia's teachings. There was no complete agreement among the Jansenists. The group, led by Arnault and Nicola, believed that reservations to the form should be worked out to the satisfaction of all parties and signed. Pascal was one of those who proposed a more rigid version of the explanation to the form, indicating the error of the pope's decision. It was decided to end the long disputes with a general vote held at Pascal's apartment. The majority agreed with Arno's opinion. Shocked, Pascal refuses to fight and practically stops communicating with the hermits of Port Royal.

On August 19, 1662, after a painful long illness, Blaise Pascal died. Buried in the parish church of Paris Saint-Etienne-du-Mont.

Perpetuation of memory

In honor of Pascal are named:

crater on the moon;
SI unit of pressure measurement;
Pascal programming language.
One of two universities in Clermont-Ferrand.
Annual French Science Prize (official site).
Gymnasium of the city of Gomel.

Name: Blaise Pascal

Age: 39 years

Activity: mathematician, mechanic, physicist, writer, philosopher

Family status: was not married

Blaise Pascal: biography

Inventions and discoveries

During the seminars, Pascal met the geometer Desargues and began to study his works. Desargues's manuscripts were written in a complex language, so Blaise, drawing ideas and inspiration from his scientific papers, attached mathematical formulas simplified view.

Further, the 17-year-old young man made his debut in print: in 1640, he saw the light of the "Experience of the theory of conical sections", which became a fundamental treatise for further works in the field of geometry. The third lemma from this work is Pascal's theorem, which helps to construct a canonical section at five points.

In the winter of the same year, Blaise Pascal moved to the capital of Normandy - Rouen. In this city, Pascal Sr. worked in his specialty, doing tedious and monotonous calculations in a column. Blaise sought to simplify his father's work, as a result of which he came up with the idea of ​​creating a summing machine.

Already in 1642, Blaise was developing a miracle device. His adding machine, made according to the principle of an ancient taximeter, looked like a box with numerous gears and made it possible to carry out calculations with six-digit numbers, and the calculation was carried out in a semi-automatic mode.

However, Pascal's invention did not bring laurels of honor to its creator. In those days in France, tax calculations were carried out in livres, sous and denier, so the use of a machine with a decimal system only complicated this process, although Pascal tried to improve his creation for ten years.

But Pascal's discovery became key for further scientific work: at the end of the 16th century, the country of Cezanne and Parmesan finally switched to the metric system, and in 1820 the first mechanical calculator was patented, which brought wealth to its creator, Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar.

At the end of 1646, Blaise Pascal, having learned about the tube invented by Torricelli, became interested in physics. The scientist began to set up experiments, proving that Aristotle's hypothesis about the "fear of emptiness" has limits. The Italian genius Torricelli conducted an experiment with a tube filled with mercury to prove the existence of atmospheric pressure, and came to the conclusion that a void is formed in the tube dipped in mercury.

Blaise modified this experiment and concluded that top part the tube is not filled with vapors chemical, subtle matter or other substance. Pascal published the results of his work in the treatise "New Experiments Concerning Emptiness", and then strove to come to the conclusion that the column with a poisonous metal is held by air pressure.

In addition, Blaise Pascal published the manuscript "Treatise on the Equilibrium of Fluids" (1653), formed the idea of ​​a hydraulic press and established the basic law of hydrostatics, refuting the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher.

In 1651, Pascal's father died, and his sister Jacqueline, in whom he found a friend, said goodbye to worldly life and went to a monastery. To distract himself from the difficulties of life, Blaise began to appear more often in society, and in 1652 he received recognition and fame, presenting his summing machine to the Swedish queen Christina.

The success aroused Pascal's interest in further scientific activity, fame and social life. The scientist often stayed with his friends and gambled. Observing the dice game, Pascal and Fermat laid the foundations of the theory of probability, as a result of which Huygens, who became interested in these calculations, wrote the essay "On Calculations in Gambling" (1657).

Philosophy

Blaise Pascal left his mark on history as a mathematician and physicist, but few people know that Pascal retired from scientific activity, preferring philosophy.

The fact is that in 1654 Blaise Pascal, who was planning to write the treatise "The Mathematics of Chance", decided to withdraw from secular life because of an insight that happened at half past eleven in the evening. After an unconscious stream of thought, Blaise, who came to his senses, began to write down his ideas on the first piece of parchment that came across, stitching this draft into the lining of his clothes. This recording, called "Memorial" and changing the fate of the scientist, was discovered only after the death of Pascal.

Blaise decided to leave the capital of France and become a confessor at the Port-Royal monastery, equating all the secular connections that had previously given him hope for happy life, to sin. Pascal was admitted to the monastery and began to adhere to a harsh lifestyle. Despite the difficult daily routine, little sleep and constant prayers, the scientist felt an improvement in his health and an uplifting spirit.

Among other things, Blaise Pascal, after a discussion with Jansenists and Jesuits, who expounded the propaganda of moral values ​​in the spirit of rationalism, created Letters to the Provincial. Pascal's treatise, published under a pseudonym and condemning casuistry, caused a scandal in the public, so the scientist, at the risk of going to jail, was forced to hide for some time and live under a false name.

Pascal also presented an argument for demonstrating the rationality of religious faith, familiar to the present generation as Pascal's wager. The essence of the reasoning was that it is dangerous to live without faith in God, because in the case of the existence of such an atheist, eternal torment awaits, which is a "loss." But the price of the "win" is not high, because if religious codes are fiction, then unbelief does not give anything.

Personal life

Pascal's character should be judged by his philosophical reasoning, and the only love in his life was science. Pascal adhered to an ascetic lifestyle, so there can be no question of the offspring of the great scientist. It is also known that Blaise was in poor health: according to legend, while still a three-year-old boy, he was cursed by a woman begging for alms.

Etienne believed in witchcraft, therefore, suspecting something was wrong, he found a witch and ordered to save his son from the curse. The damage was carried over to the black cat, but Pascal suffered physical ailments throughout his life. For example, one afternoon the philosopher began to have an intense heartbeat, which almost brought the mathematician to a fainting state.

Pascal believed that his idleness was the cause of his heart disease. But according to the surviving manuscripts, Pascal suffered from a list of diseases - from brain cancer to problems with the spine. Contemporaries used to say that Pascal looked like an old man who had seen life at the age of 37, but Blaise, despite the prohibitions of doctors, continued to engage in tedious scientific and writing activities. The physicist understood that he was on the verge of death, but did not feel fear of death.

Death

Every year, Pascal's health began to deteriorate, and doctors could not cure the scientist of all diseases, in addition, he was diagnosed with intestinal tuberculosis.

Blaise died on August 19, 1662, in his fortieth year. In memory of the scientist who amazed the world with his achievements and sayings, a crater on the Moon, a university in France and the Pascal programming language were named.

Discoveries

• 1634-1635 - "Treatise on Sounds"
• 1640 - "Experience in the theory of conic sections"
• 1642 - Pascal's summing machine
• 1647 - "New Experiments Concerning Emptiness"
• 1653 - "Treatise on the Arithmetic Triangle"
• 1653 - "Treatise on the equilibrium of liquids"
• 1854 - "Memorial"
• 1657-1658 - "Thoughts"

Quotes

• "The moral qualities of a person should be judged not by his individual efforts, but by his daily life."
• "In me, and not in the writings of Montaigne, contains what I read in them"
• “A person should not equate himself with either animals or angels, nor should he be ignorant of the duality of his nature. Let him know what he really is "
• "To bring piety to superstition is to undermine it."
• "Can there be anything more ridiculous than the fact that such and such a person has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river or sea, and because his government is at odds with mine, although I have no quarrel with him."

Blaise Pascal is a physicist, a famous French scientist, considered one of the founders of mathematical analysis, projective geometry and the theory of probability. The hero of our article is the author of the basic law of hydrostatics, which Napoleon dreamed of making a senator if he were his contemporary. His achievements became fundamental for the future generation of researchers in the exact sciences. In fact, he stood at the origins of computer science, although he lived in the 17th century. The scientist invented the summing machine, which became the prototype of the modern calculator. In addition, he was a philosopher who left behind a huge amount of wise quotes and aphorisms.

early years

Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 in the small town of Clermont-Ferrand, located in a commune in the south of France. The hero of our article grew up in a large family of officials who belonged to a half-family.

His father, Etienne, was in charge of the tax office, and the mother of the hero of our article, Antoinette Begon, was engaged in housekeeping, remaining a deeply religious woman. She was the daughter of the Seneschal, a representative of the highest court positions.

When the boy was only three years old, his mother died, so he was raised exclusively by his father. Etienne was well versed in mathematics and other exact sciences, so he gave his children an excellent home education. Blaise showed alertness and curiosity from an early age. For example, at the dinner table, he was constantly interested in the basics of subtraction and addition with his father, but he believed that it was too early for the child to study mathematics, otherwise it could negatively affect the study of Latin.

Education

Those around him noted that he grew up as a gifted child, read a lot, and science was given to him without much difficulty. Interestingly, the early years of the future physicist Pascal Blaise resemble the fate of another scientist - Gottfried Leibniz. He also studied the treatises of ancient historians and philosophers, but his father insisted that the learning process be appropriate for the child's age.

At the age of 12, Pascal studied ancient languages, and then took up the basics of mathematics. Once Blaise began to ask his father what geometry is. He explained to him that this is a way to draw the correct figures and set the appropriate proportions between them. Pascal, impressed by the new knowledge, immediately drew a square, triangles and circles on the floor in charcoal, giving them their names.

Blaise sought to find a scientific explanation for everything that surrounded him, even the most ordinary processes. For example, when, during lunch, he heard the sound of a spoon touching earthenware, he touched the dish, after which the sound disappeared instantly. He tried for a long time to find out the nature of this previously unknown process, due to which the famous "Treatise on Sounds" appeared.

At the age of 14, the hero of our article begins to attend lectures by the music theorist and famous mathematician Maren Mersenne, although his father still believes that it is too early for him to study the exact sciences. It is known that Mersen was in correspondence with many prominent scientists of our time - Torricelli, Galileo, Gassendi, so Pascal learned a lot from him. He managed to direct the development of the young man in the right direction.

First discoveries

At one of the seminars, Pascal will meet the geometer Desargues and begin to study his works. They were written in extremely difficult language, so that Blaise, drawing inspiration from his writings, constantly strove to simplify the mathematical formulas.

At the age of 17, he published his first work of his own. In 1640, his work was published under the title "Experience of the theory of conic sections". He became the main treatise for his further works and research in the field of geometry. The third lemma, contained in it, in the future turned into Pascal's theorem, with the help of which canonical sections are constructed along five points.

At the end of the same year, he moves to Rouen, the capital of Normandy. His father worked here at that time, whose activity consists in monotonous and tedious calculations, which are carried out in a column. It is at this moment that Pascal has the idea to help the parent by creating an adder machine. He began to develop the apparatus in 1642. The scientist gets an adding machine according to the principle of an ancient taximeter, which looks like a small box with a lot of gears. It allows you to make calculations with 6-digit numbers, the whole calculation is carried out in a semi-automatic mode.

It may seem surprising, but this invention of his did not bring him any fame. The fact is that at that time tax calculations in France were carried out simultaneously in livres, denier and sous, so the appearance of the decimal machine only complicated the whole process. At the same time, Blaise did not give up hope, trying over the years to improve his creation.

Pascal's discovery played a big role in the future, when at the end of the 16th century France switched to the metric system, and in 1820 Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar's first mechanical calculator was patented. This discovery, which in some key principles repeated the early invention of Pascal, brought fame and honor to its creator.

Passion for physics

Physics captivated the hero of our article in 1646, when he learned about the tube that Torricelli invented. Pascal began to conduct experiments and experiments, seeking to prove in practice that Aristotle's hypothesis about the "fear of emptiness" is limited to certain limits.

At the same time, Torricelli became famous for his experiments with a tube that he filled with mercury. With the help of this device, the Italian physicist sought to prove the existence of atmospheric pressure. As a result, he came to the conclusion that a void is formed in the tube dipped in mercury.

Blaise modified and improved this experiment, coming to the conclusion that the top of the tube does not contain subtle matter, but vapors of a chemical substance or some other substance. He strove to come to the conclusion that a column of poisonous metal is held in the tube by air pressure. He described the results of his experiments in a treatise entitled "New Experiments Concerning Emptiness."

The law of hydrostatics

Another project of the physicist Pascal was the Treatise on the Equilibrium of Fluids, which he wrote in 1653. In it, he outlined the idea of ​​a hydraulic press, establishing the main one.As a result, the French researcher managed to refute the hypotheses that were previously put forward by the ancient Greek scientist and philosopher.

In 1651, a tragedy occurs in the family of the hero of our article - his father dies. After that, Blaise's sister Jacqueline, with whom he was especially close and whom he considered his friend, decides to give up worldly life and goes to the monastery.

Pascal needs to be distracted from the difficulties that he regularly has to face, so he plunges into high life, regularly appears in society. In 1652, real fame and recognition came to him, when his summing machine was judged by the Swedish Queen Christina.

The first significant success arouses in the physicist Pascal an additional interest in science, as well as fame and social life, in which he now knows a lot. Since then, Blaise has often gambled with close friends and acquaintances. It is during the dice game that he formulates the foundations of the theory of probability. The calculations compiled by him a few years later interested Huygens, who in 1657 wrote a treatise "On Calculations in Gambling".

Pascal's theorem

One of the key works in the biography of the physicist Pascal is the theorem that he formulated by generalizing the data from Papp's theorem.

It was taken by the scientist as a basis. The treatise itself on conical sections has not survived to this day, its content is known only thanks to the letters of Leibniz, who got acquainted with the original when he came to Paris.

The essence of this theorem is that for a hexagon inscribed in a circle, the intersection points of three pairs of opposite sides are located on one straight line. The same statement is valid for any other conic section, including a parabola, ellipse, hyperbola, and even a pair of straight lines.

Research in physics

Blaise Pascal achieved the greatest success in physics. Most of the modern hydraulic devices were developed thanks to this French scientist. The work of hydraulic presses, brake systems, and other similar devices is based on the definition in physics. The basic law of hydrostatics is based on it. This discovery of Blaise Pascal in physics is formulated as follows:

The pressure applied to a liquid or gas is transmitted to any point unchanged in all directions.

It should be noted that the physicist Pascal noted that in this case we are not talking about the pressure produced at different points. This law is also valid for a liquid that is in a gravity field. This is what Pascal discovered in physics. This law is a logical consequence of the law of conservation of energy, remaining valid even for compressible liquids and gases.

How is pressure measured?

One of the units of measurement in physics is named after this famous French scientist. Pascal is a value in which pressure and mechanical stress are counted.

This name was first introduced into the SI International System of Units in France in 1961. Now you know what is measured in Pascals in physics. How is it recorded? The Russian designation for Pascal in physics is Pa, the international one is Pa.

Philosophy

In 1654, a mysterious event happened to the scientist. He himself claimed that this was an insight that came to him before bedtime. Under the influence of an unconscious stream of thoughts, for some time he was unconscious, and when he regained consciousness, he wrote down all the ideas. This work was discovered only after his death.

The inspiration radically changed his fate, as Blaise decided to abandon social life. He left Paris to take up residence at the Port-Royal monastery. He began to lead a harsh lifestyle, constantly prayed, claimed that he felt an uplifting spirit.

During this period of his life he created "Letters to the Provincial", in which he condemned casuistry. The work was published under a pseudonym and caused a real scandal in society. The scientist even risked being arrested for some time, so he was hiding under a false name.

Scientific triumph

In the remaining years he was engaged in science without interest, although he made another significant discovery. He studied cycloid in order to forget about toothache. He came to a decision overnight, but fame at that time no longer interested him, so he did not tell anyone about this event.

The competition between European scientists was organized by the Duke de Roanne, who called on thinkers to determine the area of ​​bodies and the center of gravity of the cycloid. Pascal's work was recognized as the best by the jury.

Personal life

Biographers claim that science was Pascal's only passion and love. He led never married and had no children.

It is known that the scientist was in poor health. According to legend, at the age of 3 he was cursed by a woman who begged for alms. His father believed in witchcraft and magic. He found this woman, forced her to deliver her son from the curse. The spoilage was transferred to the black cat, but Blaise suffered health problems throughout his life.

The scientist had heart problems, which Pascal himself considered a consequence of the fact that he led an idle lifestyle for a long time. Biographers say that the hero of our article suffered from a whole bunch of diseases - from problems with the spine to brain cancer. Doctors advised him to fatigue less, but he devoted all his time to scientific research and writing. It is believed that he felt like he was going to die soon, so he tried to do as much as possible.

Death

The scientist's health deteriorated every year. He was diagnosed with intestinal tuberculosis.

As a result, he died in 1662 at the age of 39.

Such a phenomenon as pressure is present in our life almost everywhere, and it is impossible not to mention the famous French scientist, Blaise Pascal, who invented the unit for measuring pressure - 1 Pa. In this article we want to tell you about an outstanding physicist, mathematician, philosopher and writer who was born on June 19, 1623 in the French city of Auvergne (at that time Clermont-Ferrand), and died in 1662 - on August 19.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Pascal's discoveries still serve humankind in the field of hydraulics and computing. Pascal also showed himself in the formation of the literary French language.

Blaise Pascal was born into the family of a hereditary nobleman and from birth had poor health, to which the doctors were surprised how he survived at all. Due to poor health, his father sometimes forbade him to study geometry, as he was concerned about his health condition, which could deteriorate due to mental strain. But such restrictions did not force Blaise to abandon science and already in early age he proved Euclid's first theorems. But when his father found out that his son was able to prove Theorem 32, he could not forbid him to study mathematics.

Pascal's adding machine.

At 18, Pascal watched his father compile a tax report for an entire region (Normandy). It was the most boring and monotonous occupation that took a lot of time and effort, since the calculations were made in a column. Blaise decided to help his father and worked for about two years on the creation of a computer. Already in 1642, the first calculator was born.

Pascal's adding machine was created on the principle of the ancient taximeter - a device that was intended to calculate the distance, only slightly modified. Instead of 2 wheels, 6 were already used, which made it possible to perform calculations with six-digit numbers.

Pascal's adding machine.

In this computer, the wheels could only rotate in one direction. It was easy to perform summing operations on such a machine. For example, we need to calculate the amount 10 + 15 =? To do this, it is necessary to rotate the wheel until the value of the first term is set to 10, then turn the same wheel to the value 15. In this case, the pointer immediately shows 25. That is, the counting takes place in a semi-automatic mode.

Subtraction cannot be performed on such a machine, since the wheels do not rotate in the opposite direction. Pascal's adding machine did not know how to divide and multiply. But even in this form and with such functionality, this machine was useful and Pascal Sr. gladly used it. The machine performed quick and error-free mathematical summation operations. Pascal Sr. even invested in the production of Pascalines. But this was only disappointing, since most accountants and bookkeepers did not want to accept such a useful invention. They believed that with the introduction of such machines, they would have to look for another job. In the 18th century, Pascal's adding machines were widely used by sailors, artillerymen and scientists for arithmetic additions. This invention has been sabotaged by financiers for over 200 years.

Study of atmospheric pressure.

At one time, Pascal modified the experience of Evangelist Torricelli and concluded that a void must form above the liquid in the tube. He bought expensive glass tubes and conducted experiments without the use of mercury. Instead, he used water and wine. During the experiments, it turned out that wine tends to rise higher than water. Decorte once argued that its vapors should be located above the liquid. If the wine evaporates faster than water, then the accumulated wine vapors should prevent the liquid from rising in the tube. But in practice, Descartes' assumptions have been refuted. Pascal suggested that atmospheric pressure acts equally on heavy and light liquids. This pressure can push more wine into the tube as it is lighter.

The experiments of Evangelista Torricelli

Pascal, who experimented with water and wine for a long time, found that the lifting height of liquids changes depending on weather conditions. In 1647, a discovery was made that indicated that atmospheric pressure and barometer readings are dependent on the weather.
To finally prove that the height of the rise of the liquid column in the Torricelli tube depends on changes in atmospheric pressure, Pascal asks his relative to climb the Puy-de-Dome with a tube. The height of this mountain is 1465 meters above sea level and has less pressure at the top than at its foot.

This is how Pascal formulated his law: at the same distance from the center of the Earth - on a mountain, plain or body of water, atmospheric pressure has the same value.

Probability theory.

Since 1650, Pascal has difficulty walking, as he was struck by partial paralysis. Doctors believed that his illness was related to the nerves and he needed to shake up. Pascal began to visit gambling houses and one of the establishments was called Pape Royal, which was owned by the Duke of Orleans.

In this casino, fate brought Pascal to the Chevalier de Mere, who possessed unusual mathematical abilities. He told Pascal that when throwing the dice in a row 4 times, the roll of 6 is over 50%. By making small bets in the game, he won using his system. This system worked only when throwing one die. When moving to another table, where a pair of dice was rolled, the Mere system did not bring profit, but, on the contrary, only losses.

This approach gave Pascal an idea in which he wanted to calculate the probability with mathematical precision. It was a real challenge to fate. Pascal decided to solve this problem using a mathematical triangle, which was known even in antiquity (for example, Omar Khayyam mentioned it), which later received the name - Pascal's triangle. This pyramid, consisting of numbers, each of which is equal to the sum of a pair of numbers located above it.

Name: Blaise Pascal

Years of life: June 19, 1623 - August 19, 1662

State: France

Field of activity: Mathematics, philosophy, literature

Greatest achievement: Creation of the first calculating equipment, writing of works on hydrostatics

France in the 17th century was distinguished by the presence of great minds who made a huge contribution to the development of sciences. Moreover, in a variety of areas - from technical to humanitarian. During this period, the state patronizes discoveries and their creators, thus contributing to world science. One of the most prominent representatives of that time is the outstanding mathematician, Blaise Pascal.

The life of Blaise Pascal

French scientist Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623. The family was quite prosperous - his father, Etienne Pascal, was engaged in collecting taxes and debts. Mother, Antoinette, ran a household - she had a house and three children on her shoulders - Blaise himself and his 2 sisters - Jacqueline (younger) and Gilberte (older). When the baby was 3 years old, the mother died. And the father himself began to raise the children. But doing this in the town of Clermont-Ferrand, where the future mathematician was born, is unprofitable and inconvenient. The capital will give more opportunities for children, and in 1631 the entire Pascal family moved to Paris.

Etienne was engaged in the education of his son himself - he himself had, as they say, good brains and a craving for knowledge. Moreover, the child grew up smart and grasped everything the first time. The father adhered to the principle that every subject should be studied at a certain age, so that there are no gaps in education and there is no need to strain the child too much on a subject that is not old enough. For example, learning languages ​​- from 12 years old, mathematics - from 15.

At the age of 11, Blaise surprised his parent with his knowledge of physics. And it happened like this. One day the family was having dinner at the table, and one of the children hit the earthenware dish with the device. Sounds and vibrations spread across the dining room table. And Blaise noticed that when you touch the dish, sound and vibration disappear. After this discovery, he wrote a small note about it and showed it to his father. Etienne, who is familiar with many scientists and mathematicians, takes his son to a meeting with them, and starting from the age of 14, Blaise will spend time with outstanding minds France in a monastic cell, discussing the development of technical sciences.

In 1638, clouds thickened over the family - the father did not agree with the financial policy of the cardinal, for which he was removed from office and was forced to flee from Paris. The children had to be left to a neighbor. After some time, the cardinal changed his anger to mercy and returned Pascal the elder to work as a collector, not in Paris, but in Rouen. The family moved again.

Blaise Pascal's Adder

In 1640, Pascals came to his father's new place of work. It is during this period that Blaise's health begins to deteriorate. He himself had never been in good health, and here in Rouen it got worse. But nevertheless, he did not quit his studies of science.

My father grew older and could no longer make calculations in his head so quickly. The son saw this torment and decided to help the parent. He wanted to make such an amazing device that would do all the computational work for them. In 1642, Blaise began developing the world's first calculating machine. It was quite easy to use - a medium-sized box with gears inside. With the help of revolutions, amounts were entered and added (or subtracted). Pascal calls the typewriter "Pascalina".

This machine became truly revolutionary at that time, but did not bring a lot of money to its creator, because it was quite expensive to handle and too bulky. However, Blaise does not lose heart and over the next nine years, mass-produced the machine, constantly improving it.

The genius of mathematics and physics

Despite his youth, Blaise also did not disregard mathematics. Pascal develops the theory of probability. This discovery was due to the fact that card players could not solve the problem of early completion of the game and fair division of the winnings in half.

Blaise also challenged the mathematicians and physicists of antiquity, in particular, Aristotle. Once the great Greek claimed that everything is of a material nature. Pascal with the help of experiments proves that in any matter there is necessarily a vacuum. He carried out the main experiment using a Toricelli tube. An Italian scientist dipped a tube into mercury and saw that a void was formed inside the tube. Pascal proved that there are no substances on the surface of the tube. He published his observations in a book dedicated to this experience.

Blaise, in addition to technical sciences, towards the end of his life became interested in philosophy and religion. This was facilitated by the trauma of his father on the ice in 1646 and getting into the circle of Jansenists - followers of a religious doctrine that held on to the predestination of the human earthly path, from the very beginning of the spoiled nature of man as a result of original sin. Pascal himself became an ardent religious man after the death of Etienne Pascal in 1657 and the departure of his younger sister, Jacqueline, who had been his friend and support all his life. During this period, Blaise creates his scandalous work "Provincial Notes", where he criticizes the policy of the church and itself in particular. King Louis XIV and the Pope of Rome unanimously condemned Pascal for this work.

Since 1659, Pascal has been experiencing constant headaches (since childhood he had problems with nervous system). In 1647, he suffered a paralytic seizure, which further worsened his health. Jacqueline died in 1661, and this event was the final blow for Blaise. He took to his bed and did not get out of bed anymore; on August 19, 1662, he died. He was only 39 years old.

Quotes

Pascal was distinguished by both extraordinary attention and wit. His quotes are filled with life deep meaning... Basically, he talked about human nature and love, for example, that silence in it is much more valuable than any words, that only a true lover of truth can find it in a huge stream of deception. Throughout his life, he adhered precisely to those statements that he himself created.