Text b. Blaise pascal (1623 – 1662)

French inventor, Blaise Pascal was one of the most reputed mathematician and physicist of his time.

A genuis from a young age, Blaise Pascal composed a treatise on the communication of sounds at the age of twelve, and at the age of sixteen he composed a treatise on conic sections.

Blaise Pascal's Inventions

The Pascaline

The idea of using machines to solve mathematical problems can be traced at least as far as the early 17th century. Mathematicians who designed and implemented calculators that were capable of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division included Wilhelm Schickhard, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibnitz.

In 1642, at the age of nineteen Blaise Pascal invented his numerical wheel calculator called the Pascaline to help his father a French tax collector count taxes. The Pascaline had eight movable dials that added up to eight figured long sums and used base ten. When the first dial (one's column) moved ten notches - the second dial moved one notch to represent the ten's column reading of 10 - and when the ten dial moved ten notches the third dial (hundred's column) moved one notch to represent one hundred and so on.

Pascal built 50 of this gear-driven one-function calculator (it could only add) but couldn't sell many because of their exorbitant cost and because they really weren't that accurate. Up until the present age when car dashboards went digital, the odometer portion of a car's speedometer used the very same mechanism as the Pascaline to increment the next wheel after each full revolution of the prior wheel. Pascal was a child prodigy. At the age of 12, he was discovered doing his version of Euclid's thirty-second proposition on the kitchen floor. Pascal went on to invent probability theory, the hydraulic press, and the syringe.

Roulette Machine

Blaise Pascal introduced a very primitive version of the roulette machine in the 17th century. The roulette was a by-product of Blaise Pascal's attempts to invent a perpetual motion machine.

Wrist Watch

The first reported person to actually wear a watch on the wrist was the French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal. With a piece of string, he attached his pocket watch to his wrist.

Exercise 9. Answer the following questions.

1. When did the idea of using machines to solve mathematical problems first appear? Who did it belong to? 2. What were first calculators capable of? 3. What device did Pascal invent to help his father? How did it work? 4. Did Pascal’s calculator have any disadvantages? 5. How did roulette machine come to life? 6. Who was the first person to wear a watch on the wrist?

Exercise 10. Prove that Blaise Pascal was a child prodigy.

Exercise 11. Make all types of questions to the following sentence.

In 1642, at the age of nineteen Blaise Pascal invented his numerical wheel calculator called the Pascaline to help his father a French tax collector count taxes.

Exercise 12. Translate from Russian into English.

Математик, физик, научный труд, восходит к 17 веку, сложение, вычитание, умножение, деление, сборщик налогов, приборная панель, теория вероятности, вечный двигатель, запястье.

Exercise 13. Match up:

communication	prodigy
mathematical	theory
tax	dashboards
movable	collector
added	of sounds
car	motion machine
a child	up
probability	problems
a perpetual	dials

Exercise 14. Translate the following sentences into English.

1. Паскаль, один из самых выдающихся математиков и физиков своего времени, является автором научного труда о коническом сечении. 2. Первые вычислительные машины выполняли сложение, вычитание, умножение и деление. 3. В возрасте девятнадцати лет Паскаль изобрел …, чтобы помочь отцу-сборщику налогов считать налоги. 4. Он создал 50 калькуляторов, выполнявших только одну функцию, но не смог продать много устройств из-за непомерной стоимости и, кроме того, они были не точными. 5. Рулетка была побочным продуктом при изобретении вечного двигателя. 6. Первым человеком, который надел часы на запястье, был французский математик и философ Паскаль.

Exercise 15. Give a summary of the text.

Exercise 16. Imagine that you are Blaise Pascal. You are taking part in a scientific conference and you have to prepare a speech about your invention (numerical wheel calculator). Do it using the following phrases and word combinations.

I would like to begin with

The key thing I'd like to start with is

The subject of my speech is

I'm going to deal with

I'd like to fix (draw) your attention on (to) the following questions

Assume that

These assumptions call attention to

On the other hand

It is safe to say that

In order to go more thoroughly into this problem

It is essential for

In addition to

As mentioned above

It is necessary to determine here

It should be stressed here

Here is an illustrative explanation of.

Previous investigations show

From the viewpoint of.....

Perhaps it will be polemic to

In this sense I would like to emphasize

I would like to raise some questions related to

Thus, we come to the following conclusion

Thank you for attention

Exercise 17. Read and translate the text.