The young Pascal quickly learned most of what was known about geometry at the time, and at the age of fourteen, was admitted to the meetings of French geometricians, a very exclusive and prestigious affair. By the time he was sixteen, Pascal has begun work on conics and even published several papers on geometry.

A conic section is the intersection of a plane (like a sheet of paper) and a cone (like an ice cream cone). By changing the angle and location of intersection between the plane and the cone, we can produce different shapes: circle, ellipse, parabola or hyperbola. If you shine a flashlight on a wall, tilting the flashlight at different angles, you will be able to see these different shapes as well. (Click here to read more about conic sections.)

Okay, back to Pascal...

At the age of eighteen, Pascal invented the first calculator, the Pasacaline, to help his father with his work collecting taxes.

One day, when Pascal was driving his carriage, his horses got scared and jumped over the wall of a bridge. The horses plunged to their deaths, but because the leather straps that connected the carriage to the horses broke, Pascal was saved. This event so impressed Pascal that he decided that this was an act of God and became a true believer.

Although Pascal had been raised as a Catholic, he converted to Jansenism in 1646 and moved to a monastery in Port Royal in France. Jansenism teaches that individuals are incapable of doing good without God's grace, that they are destined by God to be either saved or damned, and that ultimately only a chosen few will receive salvation.

Although the Jansenists encouraged him in his mathematical studies, he never published in his own name again; he worked under the pseudonym Lovis de Montalte, or it's anagram, Amos Dettonville. He even wrote several philosophical works. Pascal's most famous work in philosophy is "Pens??es", which are essays on suffering and faith in God which he finished in 1658. In this work, Pascal proposes that belief in God is rational. This same year, Pascal had a falling out with the Jansenists and left the monastery.

In or out of the monastery, Pascal kept up his studies in geometry, hydrodynamics, and pressure, which eventually led him to invent the syringe and the hydraulic press. He also discovered what is now known as the Pascal's Law of Pressure, as well as several very important theorems in geometry.

Pascal's Law of Pressure says that the amount of pressure on an object is equal to the force divided by the area:   Pressure = Force / Area

For example, how much pressure does a 150-pound gymnast place on his/her hand's while doing a handstand?

Pressure on one hand while doing one handed handstand:
  Force = 150 lbs.
  Area (approximately) = 5 sq. in.
  Pressure = Force/Area = 150 lbs./5 sq. in. = 30 psi (pounds per square inch)

Pressure on both hands while doing two handed handstand:
  Force = 150 lbs.
  Area (both hands!) = 10 sq. in.
  Pressure = Force/Area = 150 lbs./10 sq. in. = 15 psi

(reference: Web-Based Training Courses @ LLNL)

And that's pretty cool. I bet you could determine how much pressure you put on your head while doing a headstand. Send your solutions in to the Times Editor to win 30 clams!

Later on, he met Chevalier de Mere who introduced him to games of chance and spawned his interest in mathematical probability, knowledge that is very useful in gambling. His interest in gambling would lead him, with the help of another famous mathmathician, Fermat, to write the foundation for the theory of probability.

Pascal accomplished a great deal even though he did not live all that long. He died at the age of 39 when a malignant growth in his stomach spread to his brain.