ABSTRACT
Blaise Pascal was the middle child of an upper-class magistrate in Clermont-Ferrand, France. His mother died when he was three years old, and five years later, Pascal’s father moved the family to Paris. His father, Etienne, an excellent amateur mathematician, educated young Blaise at home. Etienne first taught Blaise Latin and Greek, deciding to wait on his own love, mathematics, until his son was older. By the age of 12, however, Blaise had figured out many of the principles of Euclidian geometry on his own. His father finally relented and bought Blaise a copy of Euclid, which he devoured. Over the next several years, father and son attended weekly mathematical lectures and were regular guests at important intellectual salons in Paris. In 1638, the family underwent another trauma when Etienne Pascal was forced to flee Paris because of a conflict with the powerful Cardinal Richelieu. However, Blaise Pascal’s younger sister, Jacqueline, performed so well in a children’s play for the Cardinal that their father was given a pardon and installed as tax commissioner for Rouen.
