Étienne Pascal

Etienne Pascal
Born	May 2, 1588 Clermont-Ferrand, France
Died	September 24, 1651(1651-09-24) (aged 63) Paris, France
Spouse	Antoinette Begon
Parents	Martin Pascal (father) Marguerite Pascal de Mons (mother)
Relatives	Gilberte Jacqueline Pascal and 1 other siser

Etienne Pascal (French: [etjɛn paskal]; May 2, 1588 – September 24, 1651) was a French chief tax officer and the father of Blaise Pascal.

Biography

Pascal was born in Clermont; father and mother were Martin Pascal, the treasurer of France, and Marguerite Pascal de Mons. He also had 3 daughters, 2 of whom survived past childhood: Gilberte (1620–?) and Jacqueline (1625–1661). His wife Antoinette Begon died in 1626.

He was a tax official, lawyer and wealthy member of the petite noblesse, who also had an interest in science and mathematics. He was trained in the law at Paris and received his law degree in 1610. That same year, he returned to Clermont and purchased the post of counsellor for Bas-Auvergne, the area surrounding Clermont.

In 1631, 5 years after the death of his wife, Etienne Pascal moved with his children to Paris. The newly arrived family soon hired Louise Delfault, a maid who eventually became an instrumental member of the family. Étienne, who never remarried, decided that he alone would educate his children, for they all showed extraordinary intellectual ability, particularly his son Blaise.

Étienne Pascal served on a scientific committee (whose members included Pierre Hérigone and Claude Mydorge) set up to determine whether Jean-Baptiste Morin's scheme for determining longitude from the Moon's motion was practical.

The Limacon was first studied and named by Etienne Pascal and so this mathematical curve is often called Pascal's Limacon.

He died in Paris, France on September 24, 1651.

External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Étienne Pascal", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews