... in a few weeks had discovered for himself many properties of figures, and in particular the proposition that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. His father, surprised by this display of ability, gave him a copy of Euclid's "Elements-. Pascal read the book and mastered it. This won him respect for his great talent in mathematics. So ... to create a machine that would be similar to an everyday calculator to help his father with his accounting job. After that Pascal worked on many mathematical problems, including how gases and fluids behave. In 1654, when Pasc...

• Word Count: 479
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... 18th and 19th century, and by the 20th century, the electronic computer began to replace the adding machines. Another significant branch of mathematics that Pascal worked on during the 17th century was Probability. Probability deals with the odds of observing one of the several outcomes that can occur in ... results. For friends who gambled, he calculated the chance of loss or gain which led him to his probability theory. Pascal also came up with an arithmetical triangle known as Pascal's Triangle. This was an arrangement of numbers that were used to calculate binomial coefficients. It i...

• Word Count: 598
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School