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CHAPTER 3: FORCES AND PRESSURE

Biography of Pascal

You probably know that pascal ( Pa) is the unit of pressure, but you may not know that the

name belongs to a prodigious scientist and philosopher.

Blaise Pascal

Born in 1623, Blaise Pascal moved to Paris with his family when he was 9. Little Pascal wasvery clever, but his father thought he was too young to study mathematics so he did not let him

do so. Pascal, however, was curious and he started to work on geometry himself at the age of 12.

He discovered that the sum of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees and, when his father foundout, he was surprised and gave Pascal a copy of Euclid. Adolescent Pascal was the inventor of

the first digital calculator in the world. Of course it is not comparable with the fine electronic

calculator you are using now! It was just a strange manual machine that required complicated

and slow mechanical movements before it could generate a simple arithmetical answer. The 19 -year - old Pascal did not invent the machine for mathematical research, but for helping his father

in his work of collecting taxes.

NEXUS VISTA SPM PHYSICS FORMS 4 & 5

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Pascal did a lot of experiments on atmospheric pressure, and he firmly believed that vacuum

exists. Once Descartes( who said I think therefore I am !) visited Pascal and expressedimmense doubtfulness towards the existence of vacuum. They argued for two whole days on this

issue and separated in displeasure. Descartes had even written in a flippant manner, saying that

Pascal has too much vacuum in his head, in a letter to Huygens. However, a year later, Pascal

discovered that atmospheric pressure decreases with height, and thus deduced that there isvacuum above the atmosphere of the earth. Oddly enough, Descartes then changed his attitude

and said, It was I who two years ago advised him to do it, for although I have not performed itmyself, I did not doubt its success

Blaise Pascal

The idea of a vacuum has later aroused vigorous debates, yet no matter what, the effortPascal made was not wasted. In his 1653 publication, Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids, he

explained in detail his theory on pressure. Later generations described his work as a

comprehensive and intimate discussion about the equilibrium of forces in liquids and regarded it

as the first classic in hydrostatics. Pascal has also won eminence as a mathematician; he hasresearched into conic sections and discovered several laws in projective geometry. In

correspondence with Fermat he laid the foundation for the theory of probability.

Pascal was in poor health throughout his short life of 39 years, and he had been sufferingfrom prolonged serious headaches. Despite his health problems, he had never given up his

research in physics and mathematics. Perhaps it had originated from his intense personal

experience in the fragility of life, or he had been affected by brothers from a religious movementduring his adolescence, Pascal had a strong passion in Christianity till the end of his life. He had

an accident when crossing a bridge on his carriage; being hung over the bridge and almost lost

his life. After the incident, he was even more absorbed in religious meditation and he published

many essays on human sufferings and faith in God. Pascal had an exceptional and rationalcomprehension in religion. He believed that if God did not exist, one stood to lose nothing by

believing in him anyway, while if he did exist, one stood to lose everything by not believing.

Pascal had reinforced his rationale with many proofs from probability and mathematics.However, following a whole bunch of theories, his conclusion was: We are compelled to

gamble.