Geometry Web Quest 1

Task

Blaise Pascal (June 1623 - August 1662

He was a French philosopher , mathematician and scientist of multidimensional talent . He was a gifted child and was educated by his father himself . His earlier works were in the field of science . His notable contributions are in construction of mechanical calculators and study of fluid . He conceptualized and firmly established the concepts of vacuum and pressure . It is therefore , not surprising that the SI unit of pressure is named after him (1 Pascal 1 Nm-2

He was a great mathematician beyond doubt . His notable

contributions are in the field of projective geometry , conic sections , and Pascal 's triangle to name a few . Besides , he can be considered as founding figure for a new branch of mathematics known as probability

Pierre de Fermat

He was a French mathematician and contemporary of Pascal . His main contributions are in the field of analytical geometry , number theory probability and optics . His works are considered to have formed foundation for development of calculus by Newton . His great works include determination of maxima and minima of different curves and tangent of these curves . These works are nothing but differentiation but he did it much before the calculus was developed . He also developed a method to evaluate integral of power functions . What he did was to convert power functions in the form of an algebraic series . These works proved very useful in development of calculus . He is known for his unproved theorem that for n 2 , an bn is never equal to cn where a , b and c are integers . This theorem he claimed to have proved but the proof is elusive till date

Probability and Its Historical Background

Let us consider an action which has multiple possible outcomes , like throwing a dice will yield any of the six faces marked with different numbers similarly drawing a card from a well mixed pack of playing cards will yield any of the 52 cards . If a set of all possible events is made this set is known as Sample space . Now let us talk of an event say getting an ace when drawing a card from a pack of well mixed playing card and what is its probability . Because there are only four aces in the pack and likelihood of getting any of 52 cards from this pack is equal therefore , it is reasonable to believe that probability of getting an ace will be 4 /52 or 1 /13

Thus probability of occurrence of an event is equal to frequency of its occurrence divided by number of all the possible outcomes of an action

The foundation of the concept of probability was laid by French mathematician Blaise Pascal while trying to solve the problems raised by his friend Chevalier de Mere , who was a gambler and wanted to know about chances of getting a number when dice is thrown like chance of getting two sixes when a pair of dice is thrown . Pascal was also communicating with Pierre de Fermat about...