Science & technology

Birth of Blaise Pascal

19 June 1623

Blaise Pascal was born on 19 June 1623 in birth house of Blaise Pascal. A French mathematician, physicist and religious thinker, Pascal showed prodigious talent as a young man. He contributed to geometry, formulated what is now called Pascal's triangle and, in correspondence with Pierre de Fermat, laid foundations for the theory of probability. He built an early mechanical calculator to help his father with tax calculations, and his experiments on fluids and atmospheric pressure led to the principle named after him. After a religious experience in 1654 he devoted himself to Christian thought, defending the Jansenists in the Provincial Letters. His unfinished notes were published after his death as the Pensées. The SI unit of pressure bears his name.

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