An important historical figure to this day, Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France in 1623. A very bright child, Pascal was homeschooled by his father and later moved to Paris. Though his family was religious, involved in Jansenism, Pascal was much more interested in science and mathematics. By seventeen, he had completed a geometric treatise, and by nineteen he invented the mechanical calculator. However, by 1654, Pascal abandoned his scientific endeavors and lived out the rest of his life devoted to philosophy and theology. The contents of this edition include: "Prayer, to Ask of God the Proper Use of Sickness", "Comparison Between Christianity of Early Times and Those of To-day", "Discourses on the Condition of the Great", "On the Conversion of the Sinner", "Conversation of Pascal with M. de Saci on Epictetus and Montaigne", "The Art of Persuasion", "Discourse on the Passion of Love", "Of the Geometrical Spirit, Preface to the Treatise on Vacuum", "New Fragment of the Treatise on Vacuum" and a collection of letters.
An important historical figure to this day, Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France in 1623. A very bright child, Pascal was homeschooled by his father and later moved to Paris. Though his family was religious, involved in Jansenism, Pascal was much more interested in science and mathematics. By seventeen, he had completed a geometric treatise, and by nineteen he invented the mechanical calculator. However, by 1654, Pascal abandoned his scientific endeavors and lived out the rest of his life devoted to philosophy and theology. The contents of this edition include: "Prayer, to Ask of God the Proper Use of Sickness", "Comparison Between Christianity of Early Times and Those of To-day", "Discourses on the Condition of the Great", "On the Conversion of the Sinner", "Conversation of Pascal with M. de Saci on Epictetus and Montaigne", "The Art of Persuasion", "Discourse on the Passion of Love", "Of the Geometrical Spirit, Preface to the Treatise on Vacuum", "New Fragment of the Treatise on Vacuum" and a collection of letters.Published October 22nd 2011 by Digireads.com

Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.
At 16, Pascal began designing a calculating machine, which he finally perfected when he was thirty, the pascaline, a beautiful handcrafted box about fourteen by five by three inches. The first accurate mechanical calculator was born.
Pascal was dismayed and disgusted by society's reactions to his machine and completely renounced his interest in science an mathematics, devoting the rest of his life to God. He is best known for his collection of spiritual essays, Les Pensees.
Ironically, Pascal, who was a genius by any measure, with one of the finest brains of all time, died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 39.
Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.
He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a Tax Collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli.
In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he had his "second conversion", abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensees.
In honor of his scientific contributions, the name Pascal has been given to the SI unit of pressure, to a programming language, and Pascal's law (an important principle of hydrostatics), and as mentioned above, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager still bear his name.
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