The Economic Times

At 11, he was solving scientific mysteries. Built one of history's earliest calculators. But a gambling problem led him to crack the mathematics of chance

Blaise Pascal was a child mathematical prodigy who wrote about vibrating bodies at 11, developed a major geometry theorem by 16 and built the Pascaline mechanical calculator before turning 19. In 1654, a gambling puzzle about dividing stakes in an interrupted game led Pascal into correspondence with Pierre de Fermat. Their work introduced new ways to calculate mathematical expectation and helped lay the foundation for modern probability theory.