Blaise Pascal's Contribution To The Scientific Revolution

1430 Words6 Pages

Taurean McMichael
Calc 1
Dr. Shiskowski
Blaise Pascal The 17th century is considered the early modern period in Europe. There’s no doubt it was the beginning of a lot of discoveries that will change humanity forever. The Dutch golden age was prospering, King Louis XIV of France was growing centralization of power, the European colonization of the Americas, and most importantly the scientific revolution. This point in time was the very start of what we call modern science, mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry. One person who contributed to the scientific revolution was a French mathematician named Blaise Pascal. Blaise Pascal is a name not familiar with most common people and is not really in …show more content…

Pascal’s gambling habits added to his conclusion of the probability theory. The theory states the branch of mathematics that deals with quantities having random distributions. Before, the thought of probability was considered to be a random occurrence produced by the gods. This concept will forever be used in numerous concepts of mathematics and modern science. From winning with a higher chance at the casino to helping program microprocessors. Pascal quoted “The consequences of even accidental events tend to an average value”. In modern term, it translates that reality is predictable, not chaotic.
Pascal is most famous for his finding of the “Pascal’s Triangle”. Even though it is named after him, Pascal was not the first person to come up the concept. Indian mathematicians called it the staircase of Mount Meru. In Iran, it is the Khayyam triangle. And in China, it is the Yang Hui 's triangle. Pascal innovated the triangle by combining all ideas of the past and implementing new …show more content…

The triangle starts with the number one and increases the number of digits as you descend levels. You count down in nodes as you descend to see how many times you get to that space. Which n= how many levels you should ascend. The final row would be the coefficient of the answer. From left to right a variable would descend in exponential value starting with what n equals. (Example, a4, a3, a2,etc…). For the b variable, you would do the opposite and go in ascending order(Example, b4, b3, b2,etc…). Then you would add the variables together to find the answer. This method is way faster than doing the math by hand using the F.O.I.L. method. Below is a view of the Pascal