Life of Blaise Pascal - World of Biography

In the early seventeenth century, a 12-year-old boy was so involved working out on principles of Geometry, calling straight lines 'bars' and circles 'rounds' trying trying to put forth a method to prove his guess or conviction. It was that the three angles of a triangles must add up to two right angles. Being unaware of the fact that his father was arround, he was busy working on the mathematical diagram. When his father came to know about it, he felt proud of his son; and a few years later, the entire world was to take note of him and his achievements.The young boy turned out to be none other than the great mathematician, Blaise Pascal.

On June 19, 1623, Blaise Pascal was born at Clermont – Ferrand, the capital of Auvergne, France and christened eight days later. Clermont was a small town with a population of about 9,000 people. His father Etienne Pascal was a high public official in the Department, being Conseiller Elu pour le Roi in the elctorate of Bas-Auvergne at Clermont and about to be President from 1624 of the Cour des Aides. Blaise’s mother Antoinette Begon was a daughter of Victor Begon, a burgess and merchant of Clermont, who aspired to public service position. Of the four children of Etienne and Antoinette, only three - Gilberte, Blaise and Jacqueline, survived.

When Blaise was only three, his mother at the age of 30, died. Blaise’s father Etienne though grief – stricken resolved to father, mother and tutor his children - a unique resolve of those times. Etienne Pascal nurtured his children in his own style educating the kids; he used to teach them through open talks and debates. He was a wonderful teacher, who never suppressed his children’s qualities by resorting to harsh educational methods. He himself was a prominent mathematician and meticulously undertook the task of educating Blaise.

In 1631, when Blaise’s family settled in Paris, Blaise was eight years old. In Paris, Etienne Pascal engaged a governess named Louise Default to look after his young children. She remained attached throughtout her life with the Pascal's. Etienne who lived the spirit of Renaissance, wanted his son to become a humanist. He taught Blaise Greek and Latin languages. Due to such a cultured upbringing in Paris, Blaise’s sister Jacqueline too figured as an infant prodigy in literary circles, as Blaise himself achieved fame in mathematics.

At the age of twelve, Blaise set himself to reflect upon and draw figures on the tiles of his playroom. He did not even know the names of the figures and started naming them Blaise Pascal . He called a circle ‘round’ and a line ‘bar’! His curiosity and intelligence pushed him to reach the 32nd theorem of the first book of Euclid. The theorem was: The sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. His father was surprised at what Blaise was doing. It seemed that Blaise was seeking something; and that something turned out to be the 37th proposition of the first book of Euclid's theorem! Blaise’s father was deeply struck by his son's ability and gifted him a copy of Euclid’s Elements. Blaise read the book with all eagerness and soon mastered it.

At the age of 14, Blaise started attending weekly sessions, in which prominent geometricians including Roberval, Mersenne, Mydorge, Pierre Petit(young engineer), Gerard Desargues (mathematician and architect) and others met. These meetings laid the foundation for the French Academy. When Blaise was 16, he wrote an essay on conic sections. The young boy’s work was highly appreciated in the world of mathematics. It aroused the envy of none other than Rene Descartes, the great French rationalist and mathematician. Blaise was also introduced to Geometry as a seperate discipline. All volumes of arithmetic were intentionally removed from the house, so that he would focus on Geometry alone.

Towards the end of 1638, Etienne got into trouble with the authorities. He had truble over his investments in the Hotel de Ville. Richelieu in need of money had dispute with Etienne and his group who vociferosly protested against payments for waging war. He then fled alone to Clermont leaving his family behind. Worthy to note here is the commendable part played by Jacqueline (Blaize' sister) who performed Scudery's L'Amour Tyrannique with a cast under Mondory's direction, catching the attention of the Cardinal. Here again, Jacqueline introduced Blaize as a young genius in the making (which also attracted the attention of the authority) and alongwith Mondory's pleading was able to seek successfully a reprive from Etienne's near certain imprisonment. Etienne was thus recalled from hiding and given promotion reaching Rouen honorably to join his family.

In 1639, Blaise’s father was appointed a tax collector at Rouen. It was such a tough job that he could never sleep till two at night. Etienne would pour over voluminous figures copying and calculating into the night, ceaselessly. Blaise wanted to relieve his father from such tedium and therefore worked hard for three consequitive years finally inventing a calculating device. Blaise’s contemporaries regarded this machine, which he further improved. In 1652, he came out with the final standard workable model. It was placed for sale at 100 livres, a piece that is on exhibit at Paris Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers.This was his major claim to fame and all of it was achieved in his early twenties only.