A couple of weeks ago (on June 19) I learned on X (formerly Twitter) that 401 years ago, mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was born -- more info here. Probably Pascal is best known for the array of numbers called Pascal's triangle -- and that array has influenced poetry as well as mathematics.
My source of this info about Pascal was an ongoing collection of postings on X by Mathematics & Statistics St Andrews, @StA_Maths_Stats, which offers lots of historical facts about math and math people. Their June 19 posting offered this:
Here, in a TIMELINE of mathematics at the website MATHIGON, one may find links to biographical sketches of many mathematicians -- including Pascal. And, after clicking on the link for Pascal, one my find lots more about Pascal's Triangle.
Pascal's name is often connected with a wager that he developed to rationalize belief in God. Here is A a poetic version of the wager (repeated from a 2013 posting):
from Pensèes by Blaise Pascal (France, 1623-1662)
Belief is a wise wager. Granted that
faith cannot be proved, what harm
will come to you if you gamble
on its truth and it proves false?
. . . If you gain, you gain all;
if you lose,
you lose
nothing.
Wager, then, without
hesitation, that
He exists.
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