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It
explains why a thin walled bottle containing a fluid and fitted with a
cork might break when the cork is pushed down. It also explains the
working of air compressors, vacuum pumps and hydraulic elevators, jacks
and presses.
Pascal’s
experiments proved that air has weight and that air pressure can produce a
vacuum. This was a very significant discovery because many contemporary
scientists doubted the existence of vacuum.
“Pascal”,
named after the French scientist is a unit used in the metric system to
measure pressure. Symbolized as Pa, one pascal is the pressure of a force
of one newton acting on an area of one square meter.
His
contribution to mathematics
In the 1650’s, Pascal along with a
colleague, Pierre de Fermat, also a mathematician, formulated an important
theory in mathematics called the Probability
theory and discussed some of its applications to gambling.
Pascal
devised an interesting method for the computation of combinations. He
formulated a triangular arrangement of numbers such that each number in
the triangle is the sum of the two numbers above it. This triangle came to
be known as the Pascals triangle.
The numbers, called elements are
arranged in rows. Each element of the row has its own place,
which is determined by counting from left to right. Thus, 20 appears in
the fourth place of the seventh row of the triangle. Pascal found that the
element in the (x+1)th place of
the (y+1)th row is the same as
the number of combinations of y
things taken x at a time,
denoted by Cyx. Thus, Pascal’s triangle can be
used to calculate probabilities.
In
addition to this, Pascal also devised a simple calculator that performed
the basic operations of addition and multiplication.
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