The Man Behind the Triangle
Blaise Pascal was born in France in 1623. When he was only three years old, his mother died, leaving Blaise and his three sisters with their father, Étienne Pascal.
Blaise Pascal, later in life as an adult. MAA Mathematical Treasures
Étienne taught his children at home rather than sending them to school, because he believed that children should not be pushed to study a subject until they could master it easily. He also thought that children's natural curiosity, not a stern teacher, should determine what they are taught.
Étienne decided that his children should not study mathematics until age sixteen or so, and he removed all math texts from the house.
Like a child who is never allowed to watch TV, Blaise became especially curious about the banned subject, mathematics. At age twelve, he started to work on geometry all by himself. Without the aid of a teacher or text, he figured out that the sum of three angles in any triangle is the same as the sum of two right angles (180 degrees). His father was so impressed that he allowed Blaise to study the classic geometry of Euclid.
Blaise's sister Jacqueline was also exceptionally talented. She had such a flair for writing poetry that the Queen of France often invited her to the palace, and she was the first girl ever to win a local poetry competition.
Their father, Étienne, was an important government official. As part of France's new ambitious, intellectual nobility, he was acquainted with French mathematicians and other prominent thinkers of the time.
When Blaise was fourteen years old, Étienne began bringing him to meetings with Descartes, Fermat, Mersenne, and other prominent mathematicians. At age sixteen, Blaise was the first to prove some new geometry theorems, which he presented at one of these meetings.
Shortly thereafter, Étienne got a job as a tax collector. To help him, Blaise invented a mechanical calculator.
Blaise's mathematical work greatly influenced leading philosophers and scientists, including René Descartes and Isaac Newton. Pascal's work on the mathematical triangle (now called Pascal's triangle) led to other important discoveries in mathematics.
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