The Life and History of Blaise Pascal
The Pascaline
Blaise Pascal was born June 19th, 1623 in Clermont. He was the third to be born and the only son. He was kept at home as a child because they wanted to make sure that he was not overworked. His father homeschooled him, but he was not allowed to study mathematics before the age of 15. And because of this there were no mathematical things in the house at all. Soon Blaise gave up his play time at the age of twelve to study geometry. Between the ages of 18 and 19 the Pascaline was evented by Pascal, Blaise in 1642.It was to help his dad, who was a French tax collector count his taxes. The Pascaline was the first mechanical adding machine. It was 36cm long; 13cm wide; and 8cm wide. It had eight movable parts that added up to eight, figured long sums, and used base 10. Each drum had two sets of rows. The black row of numbers was dealing with addition, and the red row of numbers was dealing with subtraction. The machine was able to convert and exchange rates for different currencies. The pascalines had metal wheel dials that turned to the appropriate numbers, answers appeared in the boxes in the top of the calculator. There were 50 pascalines built, but only few are still present today where you can actually go and see them.
Even though Blaise Pascal gave up what he been inventing in 1950, for the study of religion instead, he was known greatly for his invention of the Pascaline. Though it is no longer used today we still discover what it was used for and why it was built. Blaise Pascal moved to Port Royal where he lived until his death in Paris at the age of 39, on August 19th, 1662. He suffered from Insomnia, and acute dyspepsia, and at the time of his death he was just worn
Blaise Pascal was born June 19th, 1623 in Clermont. He was the third to be born and the only son. He was kept at home as a child because they wanted to make sure that he was not overworked. His father homeschooled him, but he was not allowed to study mathematics before the age of 15. And because of this there were no mathematical things in the house at all. Soon Blaise gave up his play time at the age of twelve to study geometry. Between the ages of 18 and 19 the Pascaline was evented by Pascal, Blaise in 1642.It was to help his dad, who was a French tax collector count his taxes. The Pascaline was the first mechanical adding machine. It was 36cm long; 13cm wide; and 8cm wide. It had eight movable parts that added up to eight, figured long sums, and used base 10. Each drum had two sets of rows. The black row of numbers was dealing with addition, and the red row of numbers was dealing with subtraction. The machine was able to convert and exchange rates for different currencies. The pascalines had metal wheel dials that turned to the appropriate numbers, answers appeared in the boxes in the top of the calculator. There were 50 pascalines built, but only few are still present today where you can actually go and see them.
Even though Blaise Pascal gave up what he been inventing in 1950, for the study of religion instead, he was known greatly for his invention of the Pascaline. Though it is no longer used today we still discover what it was used for and why it was built. Blaise Pascal moved to Port Royal where he lived until his death in Paris at the age of 39, on August 19th, 1662. He suffered from Insomnia, and acute dyspepsia, and at the time of his death he was just worn