blaise pascal: protégé and innovator of mathematics
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Blaise Pascal: Protégé and innovator of mathematics. By Izabel Hodson. I wonder what would happen if I went and thought on a rock……. The time at which Pascal lived in. Pascal lived on the brink of a time of scientific discovery in Europe known as the Scientific Revolution - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
BLAISE P
ASCAL:
PROTÉGÉ A
ND
INNOVATOR OF
MATHEM
ATICS
B Y I ZA B E L H
O D S O N
I wonder what would happen if I went and thought on a rock…….
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THE TIM
E AT
WHICH PASCAL
LIVED IN
•Pas
cal li
ved on
the b
rink o
f a tim
e of s
cientifi
c
discov
ery in
Europe k
nown as th
e Scie
ntific
Revolutio
n
•Pas
cal’s
idea
s were
influen
ced not o
nly by t
he
French
community
to w
hich he g
rew up in
but
also t
he reli
gious c
onflict
of th
e tim
e and th
e
institutio
ns that
emerg
ed
•Gali
leo, N
ewton, R
ene D
esca
rtes,
and Brah
e
were ju
st so
me of t
he scie
ntists
of Pas
cal’s
time
PASCAL’S
CHILDHOOD • Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623 in
Claremont, France• Dad Etienne Pascal was a minor noble and
government official. • Pascal’s mother died in 1626 when Pascal was
just 3. • Pascal moves to Paris in 1631. He started his
education and was found to have a gift for mathematics.
• At the early age of 14, Pascal was admitted to weekly meetings with Roberval, Mersenne, and other French geometricians, from which the French Academy sprung.
• This was a significant position considering the selectiveness of French Academic Institutions compared to other European institutions
Building Blocks of Pascal’s
Knowledge=His Father
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BLAISE P
ASCAL
CALCULA
TOR
•Pas
cal c
reated
this
for his
father
to use
in 16
42
in his job
as a
royal ta
x com
mission
er
•Pas
cal s
pent t
hree ye
ars an
d wen
t throu
gh 50
prototyp
es befo
re pres
entin
g his first
mac
hine
to the p
ublic in
1645
•Th
is inve
ntion la
unched
man
y innov
ators
to
come o
ut in Eu
rope a
nd start
inve
nting ot
her
mechan
ical d
evice
s and ot
her ca
lculat
ors
• Th
is ca
lculat
or co
uld add an
d subtra
ct an
d
paved
the w
ay fo
r future
arithmeti
c mac
hines
PASCAL’S
TRIANGLE
• Published in Pascal’s Traité du triangle arithmétique (1653)
• Though Pascal was not the first to discover this pattern (the Chinese and Arabs had in earlier centuries), Pascal was the first to realize its compete capabilities and uses the pattern contained
• Pascal’s triangle is a pattern of binomial coefficients in a triangle
• This made a significant contribution in geometry and number theory
• Applications of Pascal’s findings include:
(x + y)2 = x2 + 2xy + y2 = 1x2y0 + 2x1y1 + 1x0y2
Or the model for all:(x + y)n = a0xn + a1xn−1y +
a2xn−2y2 + ... + an−1xyn−1 + anyn
PASCAL A
ND
PROBABILITY
PROBLEM OF POINTS—The issue in question was to decide how the stakes of a game of chance should be divided if that game were not completed for some reason.
• French nobleman Chevalier challenged Pascal to solve a puzzle known at the time as the problem of points.
• Pascal shows how to figure out the answer by listing all of the possibilities from the very beginning.
• We then look at all the combinations of heads and tails that are possible in three tosses =eight.
• If each H or T has a possibility of being correct 4 times, this means that all 8 have an equally probability of picking.
• Through his work with probability Pascal established many of the basic laws of probability we use today
I wonder if it took Pascal a machine to figure out probability
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PASCAL’S
WAGER
•Pa
scal fo
rmulat
ed an
argumen
t for h
is beli
ef in God
which
has co
me to b
e know
n as Pas
cal’s
Wag
er
•He s
tates
in Pe
nsees:
If you
erroneou
sly be
lieve in
God, you
lose n
othing (
assum
ing that
death is
the a
bsolute
end),
whereas
if you
correc
tly belie
ve in God,
you gain
every
thing (e
ternal
bliss).
But if yo
u corr
ectly d
isbelie
ve in God, yo
u gain n
othing
(death e
nds all)
, where
as if y
ou err
oneously
disbelie
ve in G
od,
you los
e ever
ything (e
ternal
damnat
ion)
•Thi
s theol
ogical
argument is
based upon th
e thought th
at fail
ure
to acc
ept God’
s exis
tence ris
ks los
ing everyth
ing with
no payo
ff
and in tu
rn the b
est so
lution
is to
accept G
od
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PASCAL’S
THEO
LOGY
•In lit
erature,
Pasca
l is re
garded
as on
e of t
he import
ant
authors
of the F
rench
Classic
al Peri
od and is
today
still
one o
f the b
est a
uthors of
Fren
ch pros
e.
•His
use of
satir
e and w
it influen
ced la
ter deb
aters
of
scien
ce an
d other
fields.
•Th
e con
tent o
f his
literat
ure is
best rem
embere
d for it
s
stron
g oppos
ition to
the r
ation
alism
of Ren
é Des
carte
s
and si
multaneo
us asse
rtion
that
the main
counter
vailin
g
philoso
phy, em
piricism
, was
also
not goo
d for
determ
ining majo
r tru
ths.
PASCAL’S
RELIGIO
US
AFFILI
ATIONS
• Though King Louis XIV deemed the Jansenists or radical Catholics heretical, Pascal was a firm Jansenist
• He wrote Écrit sur la signature du formulaire ("Writ on the Signing of the Form"), exhorting the Jansenists not to give in.
• The Roman- Catholic Church also deemed Jansenism heretical and this led to the French suppression of the movement in Port-Royal in 1661
Jansenism—theology and religion emphasizing original sin, human depravity, predestination, and divine grace.
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SIGNIFICAN
CE AND
DEATH
OF
PASCAL
•In hon
or of
his sci
entifi
c con
tributio
ns, the n
ame
Pasca
l has
been give
n to th
e SI u
nit of p
ressu
re,,
Pasca
l's tr
iangle
and Pas
cal's
wag
er sti
ll bea
r his
name.
•In 16
62, P
asca
l's ill
ness b
ecam
e wors
e, an
d his
emoti
onal
conditio
n had se
verel
y wors
ened
since
his
sister
´s dea
th. In Pari
s on August
18, 166
2, Pas
cal
went in
to co
nvulsi
ons.
He died
the n
ext m
orning, h
is
last w
ords b
eing "M
ay God
never
aban
don m
e," an
d
was burie
d in th
e cem
etery
of Sain
t-Étie
nne-du-M
ont.
•An au
topsy
perfor
med aft
er his d
eath r
eveale
d probl
ems w
ith
his sto
mach, or
gans, a
nd abdom
en. Desp
ite the
autop
sy, th
e
cause
of his p
oor he
alth was
never
precise
ly dete
rmine
d.
SOURCES CITED• http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~mmk/Teaching/AI/l1.html• http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/pascal.html• http://www.countingblocks.com/building-blocks/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_calculator• http://www.mathsisgoodforyou.com/artefacts/pascalstriangle.htm• http://abundancesecrets.com/motivational-posters/index.php?item=1869791• http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theism/wager.html• http://bccphilosophy08.blogspot.com/• http://verydemotivational.memebase.com/?id=8744• http://
www.examiner.com/atheism-in-philadelphia/atheism-101-refuting-pascal-s-wager• http://poundingheartbeat.com/2010/10/28/blaise-pascal-quotes-about-life/• http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/h/heretic.asp• http://weirdscience.ca/page/3/• http://jpposters.com/Art/41296/Death-Mask-of-Blaise-Pascal-1662/1733254.html