Blaise Pascal

Did you know a teenager once built a machine that could do math for people? Blaise Pascal did! Born in 1623 in France, Pascal lived in the 1600s. He's famous as a mathematician, scientist, inventor, and writer. Today we'll focus on his most exciting invention: the Pascaline, one of the world's first mechanical calculators.

As a young man—about 18 or 19—Pascal invented the Pascaline to help his father with tax counting. It used gears and wheels to add and subtract numbers so people made fewer mistakes. In a time before electricity, the Pascaline looked like a clever clock that could compute.

Pascal didn't stop at machines. He worked with Pierre de Fermat to create early probability theory—math that helps us understand chances in games, weather, and insurance. He also studied patterns of numbers now called Pascal's triangle, which helps with combinations and binomial math.

He experimented with air, pressure, and vacuums and showed how pressure moves through fluids in all directions. This idea is called Pascal's law and it's used in things like hydraulic lifts and brakes. Scientists later named the unit of pressure the 'pascal' to honor him.

His inventions and ideas helped start the path from simple calculators to modern computers, and they made physics and probability stronger. He also wrote thoughtful notes called Pensées that many people still read. Pascal shows how curiosity and careful experiments can change the world—what will you explore?