XI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2019

A well-known French scientist showed that you can be a mathematician and a humanitarian, be interested in religion and create mechanisms that make life easier for people. Despite the serious illness that accompanied Pascal all his life, he left behind a lot of important works and inventions.

Blaise Pascal was born in the province of Auvergne. His father served as Chairman of the tax office, so the family was quite wealthy. In addition to Blaise's parents had two more children: eldest and youngest daughter. When Blaise was only three years. His mother fell ill and died suddenly. His father decided to move the children to Paris, so they moved in 1631. Since Pascal Sr. was an educated man and had a pretty good command of mathematics, it was he who gave his son the basics of this science. In the house of Pascal often appeared famous mathematicians of the time: Desargue and Mersenne. In addition, it was Pascal's father who began work on what his son would soon prove — "Pascal's snail" and an algebraic curve.

Blaise's father had his own method of education. So, he decided that from the age of 12 his son should learn the basics of grammar in order to think rationally about different languages of the world. But since in the house always revolved conversations about mathematics, Blaise was more interested in the science than the Humanities. But the father has decreed: math the son will do no earlier than 15-16 years. And since the baby was only eight, then mathematics could not be considered.

But Blaise didn't give up. One day he asked his father about geometry. He waved the boy's words about what is the science of geometric figures. Little Blaise sat down in a corner and began to draw coal right on the floor triangles and circles. Although I didn't even know what to call it. When his father returned to the room, he was discouraged: the child, playing, proved Euclid's theorem on the sum of the angles of triangles. Friends Pascal senior advised to abandon the original plan to teach such a gifted child, and he agreed. So Blaise started to learn the basics of geometry. Eleven-year-old Blaise Pascal became interested in sounds. Contributed to this case at the table when someone accidentally stabbed the Cup. The resulting sound disappeared, barely touched the Cup again. The boy was so carried away by this fact that he conducted a number of studies. Over time, they became the basis for his "Treatise on sounds".

Since 1637 Blaise begins to come to lectures Mersenne, in the hall he was the youngest listener. There he met Dezarg, with whom he will soon begin a close cooperation. Blaise before and had read the works of the great mathematician, and now he took them "Polish": simplified formulas and interpretation. At the age of 17, Blaise Pascal produces his first scientific work — "Experience of conical sections", based on research by Desargue. After 15 years, he finished The "complete work on conic sections", which for a number of reasons has not been published. And over time, the manuscript was lost altogether.

At the beginning of 1640 pascali again moved to another city - this time in Rouen. Blaise started to hurt badly, and in Paris, he became worse. Nevertheless, he did not give up his work, but continued to work hard on geometry.

Because Blaise's father was still working and always faced with calculations: taxes, taxation, etc. — so Blaise thought about how to develop a machine that would automatically be able to calculate the required amount. Therefore, 19-year-old Blaise Pascal begins to work on his machine for calculations — "Pascal". But then intervened the case, which hurt the pride of the inventor and work on the machine he stopped. In Rouen, one worker heard about his idea and decided to make the same calculating machine himself. But since he had heard a theory very vaguely imagined it all in practice, nothing had happened. And Pascal lost interest in the project, hearing that someone is working on the same. But then intervened friends of the scientist, they asked Chancellor Segier to talk to Pascal. He persuaded him to continue working on a useful mechanism. And three years later Blaise presented his calculating machine to the public.

In the first seven years after the launch were invented about fifty different modifications of his "pascaline". In 1649, Pascal got the Royal privilege to develop it. It acted as a modern patent and prohibited anyone else from repeating the pascaline mechanism or parts of it. In addition, selling them to foreign nationals in France was also prohibited. The penalty was a very respectable — 3 thousand livres. But the project itself has become commercially unprofitable: cost "pascalin" expensive, its production cost and time and money. Therefore, the author did not wait for a great demand for it.

In 1646, Pascal repeats the experiment with Torricelli tube. Pascal changed the terms of the experiment several times to prove that there was nothing else above the mercury in the tube. A year later, he published all the results of his own research. In 1651, Blaise Pascal's father died, and his younger sister decided to go to a monastery. Though he and Blaise had always supported her desire to go so expensive, but at one point he was left without the support of those closest to you.

In 1653 he published his treatise on the "equilibrium of liquids", which explains the difference in pressure on different liquids. Since 1652, Pascal's state of health has been deteriorating due to huge mental stress. Doctors recommend him to temper his ardor and take care of himself a little. Therefore, Blaise begins to live a more secular life and becomes a frequent guest at various events. There he meets the Duke of Roanne. It is in his house that Pascal begins to live for a long time and there he also works on many of his new developments. In addition, the heart of his new friends appears scholar and notable player Antoine Gombo, with whom Pascal will eventually begin to work on the basics of what is then called the theory of probability.

In November 1654 Pascal wrote his famous "memorial". As he himself explained, in the dream he was enlightened and the text itself was not invented by them. The text he kept near him until his death. "Memorial" radically changed his whole life. The scientist completely stopped his scientific research, found a spiritual mentor and moved from Paris to the provincial Port Royal. There he began to write his works on Jansenism. Despite his ascetic lifestyle, his health is getting much better — so Pascal was even able to make a pilgrimage to French churches. He writes a textbook on elementary geometry for schools that support Jansenism.

In 1656-1657 Pascal published his "Letters to the provincial" - polemic notes on the difference between the views of the jansenites and Jesuits. Although Pascal said that he had abandoned science, but he still wrote another work — about the cycloid, on which he began work even Mersen. In 1657-1658 Pascal published another literary and philosophical work, "Thoughts on religion and other subjects", in which he criticized atheism and defended the faith.

Despite a fairly active life, Pascal was sick all the time. Modern scientists agree that he suffered for years due to rheumatism, brain cancer, intestinal tuberculosis.

Despite these diseases, he worked until his last days on his research, written works and inventions. In 1661, he shared his idea of an affordable mode of transportation. Today it is known as omnibus. Blaise Pascal died on 19 August 1662. Buried the great scientist in Paris, in the Church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont.

In the last years of his life Pascal was engaged in philosophical anthropology, where he tried to justify Christianity. The famous programming language "Pascal" is named after the Creator of the world's first computer. During his experiments with hydrostatics, he developed and invented the syringe.

Pascal's main philosophical doctrine is "Thoughts on religion". Pascal became the inventor of the ordinary device familiar to all-a wheelbarrow with two handles and one wheel.

Bibliographic list:

Блез Паскаль [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа: https://interesnie-fakti.net свободный.