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Blaise Pascal
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Blaise Pascal was the third of Étienne Pascal's children and his only son. Blaise's mother died when he was only three years old. In 1632 the Pascal family, Étienne and his four children, left Clermont and settled in Paris. Blaise Pascal's father had unorthodox educational views and decided to teach his son himself. Étienne Pascal decided that Blaise was not to study mathematics before the age of 15 and all mathematics texts were removed from their house. Blaise ... his curiosity raised by this, started to work on geometry himself at the age of 12. He discovered that the sum of the angles of a triangle are two right angles and, when his father found out, he relented and allowed Blaise a copy of Euclid.
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Blaise Pascal was one of several historical films directed by Robert Rossellini for Italian television in the late 1960s to early 1970s. The film covers the life of 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal, from age 17 to his death, at 39, in 1662. Much is made of the agnostic Pascal's prophetic musings, notably his plans to create a calculating machine and a "rapid transit" system (involving horse-drawn busses), and his controversial theory of The Vacuum. After a lifetime of fighting religious intolerance, Pascal professes his belief in God on his deathbed. Pierre Arditi plays the title role in the 131-minute Blaise Pascal, which was written by Rossellini, Marcella Mariani, and Luciano Scaffa. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Blaise Pascal's father had unorthodox educational views and decided to teach his son himself. He decided that his son was not to study mathematics before the age of 15, and all mathematics texts were removed from their house. Pascal's curiosity was raised by this, and he started to work on geometry himself at the age of 12. He discovered that the sum of the angles of a triangle are two right angles and, when his father found out, he relented and allowed him a copy of Euclid. By the time he was 15, Pascal came to admire the work of Desargues. At 16, Pascal presented a paper on projective geometry, including Pascal's mystic hexagon, and published a work on conic sections.
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Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) had a rather unorthodox childhood. When Pascal's mother died in his infancy, Pascal's father Étienne moved Pascal and his sisters to Paris where he undertook to teach the young Pascal himself. For reason of his own, Étienne decided that Pascal was not to study mathematics prior to the age of fifteen. Pascal, an understandly curious adolescent about this restriction, started working on geometry himself at the age of twelve. Thereafter, it was impossible to restrain Pascal any longer and his father gave in when Pascal disocvered the sum of the angles of a triangle are two right angles.
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Blaise Pascal always tried to make his work in science and mathematics of practical use to mankind. While still a teenager, he invented the first machine to do calculations—an arithmetic machine which could add and subtract. This machine involved a set of wheels, each with the numbers zero through to nine on them. The wheels were connected with gears, so that a complete turn of one wheel would move the wheel next to it through one-tenth of a turn. This machine was of great use to his father—a judge in the taxation court—and to others involved in calculations. Although expensive to make and difficult to operate, Pascal’s calculating machine was an essential step in the subsequent development of calculators and computers.
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In 1653, Blaise Pascal had to administer his father's estate. He now took up his old life again, and made several experiments on the pressure exerted by gases and liquids; it was ... about this period that he invented the arithmetical triangle, and together with Fermat created the calculus of probabilities. He was meditating marriage when an accident again turned the current of his thoughts to a religious life. He was driving a four-in-hand on November 23, 1654, when the horses ran away; the two leaders dashed over the parapet of the bridge at Neuilly, and Blaise Pascal was saved only by the traces breaking. Always somewhat of a mystic, he considered this a special summons to abandon the world. He wrote an account of the accident on a small piece of parchment, which for the rest of his life he wore next to his heart, to perpetually remind him of his covenant; and shortly moved to Port Royal, where he continued to live until his death in 1662.
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