|
|
Blaise Pascal was born June 19, 1623 in Clermont Auvergne, France He was the third of Etienne Pascal’s kids and his only son. Pascal's mother died when he was only three years old. In 1632 the Pascal family, Etienne and his four kids, left Clermont and settled in Paris. Pascal's father had decided to educate his son on his own. For some stupid reason Etienne decided that Blaise was not to study mathematics before the age of 15 and all mathematics texts were removed from their house. But Pascal being like “Curious George” he started to work on geometry at the age of 12. He discovered that the sum of the angles of a triangle are two right angles and, when his father found out, he changed his mind and gave Blaise a copy of Euclid. In December 1639 the Pascal family moved to Rouen, where Etienne had been hired as a tax collector for Upper Normandy.
|