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Pascal

Born: June 19, 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, France

Died: August 19, 1662 in Paris, France

Blaise Pascal accomplished Euclid's Elements before he was 12 years old. Furthermore, studying hydrostatics helped him invent the syringe and hydraulic press. The Pascaline was the first digital calculator. Blaise Pascal invented it to help his father collect taxes. He worked on it for three years.

Blaise presented his first research paper when he was 16 years old. In the paper were several of Pascal's geometry theorems. He published "Essay on Conic Sections" (Essay pour les coniques), using the methods of Gerard Desargues.

In 1654 Pascal was admitted into a Jansenist monastery in Port Royal. There, he continued his studies in mathematics. In 1658, Pascal left the monastery. He continued the study of mathematics and worked with Pierre de Fermat on calculus and on the theory of probability.