Death of Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal died on 19 August 1662 in Paris, aged 39. 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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