Part IV — Chapter 13
Pascal & the Birth of Probability
The triangle, the calculator, the wager, and the mathematics of chance
13.1 The Child Prodigy
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) showed extraordinary mathematical talent from childhood. At 16 he wrote an essay on conic sections, and at 19 invented the Pascaline, one of the first mechanical calculators.
13.2 Pascal's Triangle and Probability
Pascal's Traité du triangle arithmétique (1654) systematically studied binomial coefficients. His correspondence with Fermat about the problem of points founded the mathematical theory of probability. Pascal's famous “wager” is one of the earliest applications of decision theory under uncertainty.