Biography
Napoleon said that he would certainly have done the blisse of Pascal by Senator, Lion Tolstoy called him a great mind, and Ivan Turgenev admired the greatness of this scientist. The Frenchman made the achievements that became fundamental for the future generation: Pascal stood at the sources of informatics, proved the existence of atmospheric pressure and came up with a summing machine that has become the prototype of the calculator.
Some are used to seeing the portrait of Pascal in textbooks in mathematics and physics, however, the genius also remembered philosophical writings, which are a storehouse of aphorisms and wise quotes.
Childhood and youth
A scientist, the year of birth of which dates back June 19, 1623, was born in the commune in the south of the central part of France, in the city of Clermont-Ferrand. The future mathematician grew and brought up in a large family (Pascals had three children), which belonged to the officials semi.
The main breadwinner in the house, Etienne Pascal, worked by the Chairman of the Tax Department, and his wife Antoinette Beyon, the daughter of Sereshal Ovensha, led a household and was deeply believer and a good woman.
When the boy was 3 years old, his mother died from illness, so splashes grew and brought up with his father. Etienne, who disassembled in mathematics and made the opening of the Snail of Pascal, gave home education to his offspring, which began to show curiosity from early childhood.
Browsed with a gifted child, so the reading of the literature and the knowledge of science was given to him without much difficulty. It is noteworthy that the biography of the younger Pascal reminds the early years of the Labitsa. Blaze sought to study the books of the oldest philosophers and historians, but his father adhered to the opinion that the learning process should correspond to the age of the boy.
Thus, in the framework of the Etienne's education program, young blaze was to get acquainted with ancient languages at the age of 12, and after three years it began to start learning mathematics, but the boy was not to know the basics of Queens of Science. Therefore, at the dining table, the young Pascal constantly asked his father about the addition and subtraction of numbers, but Etienne believed that the passion for mathematics in such early years would affect the study of the Latin language.
Once, the brier asked his parent, what a geometry was, and he explained that this is a way to draw the right figures and find the proportion between them. Pascal's impressed by a brief response, Pascal took over coal and began to draw triangles, squares and circumference on the floor, calling the line "stick", and the circle "ring".
Young Pascal tried to find an explanation even to ordinary processes, for example, during lunch, someone touched on the table subject of faience dishes, which is why sound was heard. When the eleven-year-old boy touched his finger to the dish, the sound disappeared. Impressed Pascal tried to explain this unknown process, as a result of which the "treatise on sounds" arose.
When the young man was 14 years old, he, despite his father's prohibitions, began to attend the lectures of French mathematics and the theorist of music Maren Mersenna, who led a friendly correspondence with Galileo Galileem, Torricelli, Gassendi and other scientists, there were 78 correspondents among his surroundings. He sent not only Pascal to the right bed, but also Descartes and the farm.
Inventions and discoveries
During Seminars, Pascal got acquainted with the geometer Dzarg and began to study his works. Dzarga manuscripts were written in a complex language, so splashes, drawing ideas and inspiration from his scientific papers, attached to mathematical formulas simplified appearance.
Further, a 17-year-old young man took place in the press: in 1640, the light saw the "experience of the theory of conical sections", which became a fundamental treatise for further work in the field of geometry. The third lemma of this work is the Pascal theorem, which helps to build a canonical section of five points.
In the winter of the same year, Pascal moved to the capital of Normandy - Rouen. In this city, Pascal-senior worked in a specialty, making tedious and monotonous calculations in the column. Blaze sought to simplify the work of the Father, as a result of which he had an idea about creating a summing machine.
Already in 1642, the relief was engaged in the development of a miracle apparatus. Its an arithmeter made on the principle of an ancient taximeter looked like a box with numerous gears and allowed calculations with six-digit numbers, and the calculation was made in semi-automatic mode.
However, the invention of Pascal did not bring the laurels of honor to its creator. In those days in France, tax calculations were carried out in the grains, su and day, so the use of a machine with a decimal system of calculus only complicated this process, although Pascal has tried to improve his creation for ten years.
But the discovery of Pascal became key to further scientific papers: At the end of the XVI century, Cezanna and Parmesan, and Parmesan finally moved to the metric system, and in 1820 the first mechanical calculator was patented, which brought the wealth to his creator - Charlem Xavier Tom de Colmar.
At the end of 1646, Pascal flashes, having learned about the tube, invented Torrichelli, began to get involved in physics. The scientist began to put experiments, proving that Aristotle's hypothesis about "fear of emptiness" has limits. The Italian genius Torricelli has experienced an experience with a tube filled with mercury to prove the existence of atmospheric pressure, and came to the conclusion that emptiness is formed in the tube lowered in mercury.
Blaze changed this experiment and concluded that the upper part of the tube is not filled with pairs of chemical, fine matter or other substance. The results of their work Pascal published in the treatise "new experiments relating to emptiness", and then sought to conclude that the patch with a poisonous metal is held by air pressure.
In addition, Blaise Pascal released the manuscript "Treatise on Equilibrium" (1653), formed the idea of the hydraulic press and established the main law of hydrostatics, refuting the teachings of an ancient Greek philosopher.
In 1651, Pascal died Father, and his sister Jacqueline, in which he found a friend, said goodbye to a worldly life and went to the monastery. In order to distract from the difficulties of being, gloves began to appear more often in society, and in 1652 he received recognition and glory, presenting his summating machine of the Swedish Queen Christine.
Success caused Pascal of interest in further scientific activities, glory and secular life. The scientist was often in the company of his friends and played gambling. Watching the game in the bone, Pascal and Farm laid the foundations of the theory of probability, as a result of which the Guigens became interested in these calculations wrote an essay "On calculations in gambling" (1657).
Philosophy
Blaze Pascal left a trace in history as a mathematician and a physicist, but few people know that Pascal was removed from scientific activities, preferred philosophy.
The fact is that in 1654, Blaze Pascal, who planned to write a treatise "Mathematics of the case", decided to remove himself from secular life due to the insight, which happened half the twelfth evening. After the unconscious thread, the thought that came to the sense, began to write his ideas on the first parchment on the first parchment, schoing this draft into the lining of the clothes. This entry, called the "Memorial" and changed the fate of the scientist, was discovered only after the death of Pascal.
Tells decided to leave the capital of France and become a confessor in the monastery of the pore-piano, equating all secular connections that previously gave him hope for a happy life, to sin. Pascal was adopted in the abode and began to stick to the harsh lifestyle. Despite the heavy routine of the day, a small amount of sleep and constant prayers, the scientist felt improved health and exaltation of the Spirit.
Among other things, Blaise Pascal, after a discussion with the Yanesenists and Jesuits, which in the spirit of rationalism set out the propaganda of moral values, created "letters to the provincial." The path of Pascal, published under the pseudonym and the condemning Casuisting, caused a scandal in the public, so a scientist, risking to get behind the bars, was forced to hide and live under someone else's surname.
It is worth noting that Voltaire, the opponent of pretentious religiosity, praised the manuscript of Pascal, noting that in his work, Jesuits look not only disgusting, but also funny. Further, Pascal, who refused from new inventions, continued to discuss mathematics with his friends, but at that time he began to study the cycloid to distract from a sick tooth.
To the correct solution of Pascal, who considered the Mersenna's task, came in one night, reluctantly making a new discovery. The scientist did not want to represent the results of the public to the public, but his friend, Duke de Ro Roanne, arranged a contest among the geniuses of Europe, which during the competition had to determine the center of gravity and the area of bodies of the cycloids.
Despite the efforts of many minds, the decision of Pascal members of the jury was recognized as the best, and his manuscript had influenced the differential and integral calculus.
Despite the scientific triumph, Pascal continued to engage in the special way of knowledge of the world and began to argue about the "apology of Christian religion", where he criticized in the fluff and dust of atheism adherents. But Pascal had difficulties with the creation of "apology", and various situations from life became a stumbling block for writing this philosophical labor.
Moreover, his religious plans changed over time, therefore, fragmentary records of the scientist preaching apologetics of Christianity were different both by the genre and in content. Later, these manuscripts entered the meeting of ideas called "Thought about religion and other subjects", in which the writer thought about the original sin and reflected on the identity of Jesus Christ.
Also Pascal was presented an argument to demonstrate the rationality of religious faith, familiar to the current generation as Paskal Paris. The essence of reasoning was that without faith in God, it is dangerous to live, because in the case of an existence of an atheist, eternal flour await, which is "losing". But the price of the "winnings" is small, because if religious vaults are invention, then there doesn't give a chalmere.
Personal life
The character of Pascal should be judged by his philosophical reasoning, and the only love in his life was science. Pascal adhered to a ascetic lifestyle, so there can be a speech about the offspring of a great scientist. It is also known that Blaze was weak health: according to legend, also, being a three-year-old boy, he was cursed by a woman who asked alms.
Etienne believed in witchcraft, so, suspecting something wrong, found a witch and ordered to save the Son from the curse. The damage was moved to a black cat, but Pascal has experienced physical ailments throughout his life. For example, one day after dinner, the philosopher began a reinforced heartbeat, which almost brought math to a fainted state.
Pascal believed that the cause of heart disease was his idleness. But, according to the preserved manuscripts, Pascal suffered a list of diseases - from cancer brain to problems with the spine. Contemporaries used to say that Pascal was like an old man who had ever had life at 37 years old, but spoiled, despite the prohibitions of doctors, continued to engage in tiring scientific and writing activities. The physicist understood that he was in the balance of death, but did not experience fear before his death.
Death
Every year, Pascal's health began to deteriorate, and Lekary could not cure a scientist from all diseases, and he also discovered a bowel tuberculosis.
Telepecked on August 19, 1662, for the fortieth year of life. In memory of the scientist, which struck the world with its achievements and sayings, was named Crater on the Moon, University in France and the Pascal programming language.
Discoveries
- 1634-1635 - "Treatise on Sounds"
- 1640 - "Experience of the theory of conical sections"
- 1642 - Summing Pascal Machine
- 1647 - "New experiments relating to emptiness"
- 1653 - "Treatise on an arithmetic triangle"
- 1653 - "Treatise on equilibrium liquids"
- 1854 - "Memorial"
- 1657-1658 - "Thoughts"
Quotes
- "On the moral qualities of a person, it is not necessary to judge his separate efforts, but on his daily life"
- "In me, not in the Scriptures of Montiton, it contains what I read in them"
- "A person should not equate himself either towards animals, nor to the angels, should not and remain in the ignorance of the duality of his nature. Let him know what he is actually "
- "To bring apogest to superstition is to undermine it"
- "Maybe something is absurd of the fact that such a person has the right to kill me, because he lives on the other side of the river or the sea, and because his government is in a quarrel with mine, although I have no quarrel with him"