Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal, in Clermont-Ferrand

Blaise Pascal, a genius born in Clermont-Ferrand in 1623, is the symbolic figure of the city, that has dedicated to him a square and a statue. The Clermont-Ferrand audio-guided tour stops here to evoke this scholar of multiple talents, mathematician, physicist, inventor and philosopher, to whom is owed the theorem of Pascal, the Pascaline calculating machine and one of the first public transport networks of Paris.

History

The square that you cross bears his name, and a statue represents him on your right: Blaise Pascal is undoubtedly the symbolic figure of Clermont-Ferrand. Born in the city in 1623, he had many talents: at once mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, moralist and theologian. Nothing astonishing in that, since he was a precocious child. Come from a bourgeois family, raised by a father himself passionate about mathematics and sciences, he moved to Paris at eight years old. At twelve, he took a close interest in geometry, and at barely sixteen, he published a treatise of which one of the results still bears his name: the theorem of Pascal. At eighteen, he conceived the very first calculating machine, ancestor of our calculators, that he named the Pascaline. He had imagined it to help his father, then tax collector, but its high cost limited its success. The scholar did not stop there: he was the first to demonstrate the existence of the vacuum, and invented what is considered as the first public transport network of Paris, the five-sols carriage, that circulated at fixed hours according to a defined route and stops. A major figure of the history of sciences and thought, Pascal makes the pride of his native city.

What to see

Here you discover the square and the statue dedicated to Blaise Pascal, a genius born in Clermont-Ferrand in 1623; mathematician, physicist, inventor and philosopher, a precocious child, he published at sixteen the theorem that bears his name, conceived the Pascaline calculating machine, demonstrated the existence of the vacuum and imagined one of the first public transport networks of Paris. Blaise Pascal is the great pride of the city. It is a fine stop, to be explored on foot.

Practical information

The square Blaise-Pascal and its statue lie in the centre of Clermont-Ferrand, reachable on foot. It is a space in free access in the public space, that you discover during a walk in the centre.

Who was Blaise Pascal, born in Clermont-Ferrand?

Born in the city in 1623, Blaise Pascal was a genius of multiple talents: mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, moralist and theologian; a precocious child, he published at sixteen the theorem of Pascal, conceived at eighteen the Pascaline calculating machine, demonstrated the existence of the vacuum and imagined the five-sols carriage, one of the first public transport networks of Paris.

Where to pay tribute to Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand?

At the square Blaise-Pascal, that bears his name and shelters a statue representing him, in the centre of Clermont-Ferrand, in France.