In his short life, Blaise Pascal was able to make major contributions to many of the fields of science that were rapidly developing in the seventeenth century, including projective geometry probability theory, and hydraulics. He also developed one of the earliest calculating machines for mathematical computation.

Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand. His mother died when he was three and the young Pascal was raised by his father, who supervised his education, which focused mainly upon studying ancient languages. Pascal was a weak and sickly child, but he exhibited a formidable intellect at an early age and showed a keen ability to teach himself the principles of science. His penchant for geometry, which stemmed from his reading of Euclid's Elements at the age of 12, was recognized by his father who encouraged his son in the study of mathematics. By the time he was 16, Pascal was attending meetings of the...