B1,+Guariglia,+Anthony,+Blaise+Pascale

**Blaise** **Pascal**

August 19, 1662 Paris
Summary of his Life Blaise Pascal was born on June 19th of 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne (now Clermont-Ferrand). In 1631, his father, a judge in Clermont, moved him to Paris. Already exceptionally smart in mathematics, Pascal instantly took a liking to geometry. At age thirteen he proved the 32nd proposition of Euclid and found an error in the geometry of Rene Descartes. By the time he was thirty, he perfected the worlds first calculator, known as the pascaline. And by the end of his life, he became devoted to God.

Yet despite his love for mathematics and sciences, and despite the wonderful career he had at such a young age, Pascal began to feel disgusted in society. Thus, he gave up his love, and started to study religion in 1650. However he could not last very long without his passion, and by 1653 he was back administrating his fathers estate and conducting experiments. It was also around this time in which he created the arithmetical triangle (shown below).



HIs last great achievements were the Pensées, a list of spiritual essays that he created.



Chronology: 1623 - Born in Clermont 1631 - Moved to Paris 1650 - Pascal abandons passion to study religion  1653 - Returns to his passion and creates Pascaline   1660 - Creates Pensées   1662 - Died in Paris Quotes  "Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world." " Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other. " "Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts."

"Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other."

Works Cited http://www.thocp.net/biographies/pascal_blaise.html  http://kirjasto.sci.fi/bpascal.htm http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/19233/The-Arithmetic-Machine-The-Arithmetic-Machine-or-Pascaline-a-French http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/18century/topic_3/illustrations/impensees.htm