Math Moments: Blaise Pascal
9 days ago
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- Blaise Pascal was a homeschooled French mathematician born in 1623.
- He contributed to mathematics, physics, philosophy, and theology.
- Pascal popularized Pascal’s Triangle in Europe, useful for binomial expansions, combinatorics, and patterns like the Fibonacci sequence.
- He co-founded probability theory with Pierre de Fermat, introducing concepts like expected value.
- Pascal invented the Pascaline, a mechanical calculator, to assist his tax collector father.
- Homeschooled by his father, Pascal independently rediscovered geometric propositions at age 12 after math books were banned.
- Pascal’s legacy includes inventions and theories still relevant in modern math education.