Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

By twelve, Pascal had mastered Euclid's initial propositions without instruction. At sixteen, he wrote conic section treatises Descartes refused to believe came from a teenager. At nineteen, he built functional mechanical calculators. His mathematical career was just beginning.

Collaborating with Fermat, he established probability theory's foundations through letters initially discussing gambling. His fluid mechanics work produced Pascal's Law, governing hydraulic systems. Atmospheric pressure experiments helped prove vacuums exist, overturning ancient assumptions. Then a 1654 religious experience redirected him toward theology. He sewed the experience's record into his coat lining and wore it permanently. His Pensées - fragmentary Christianity defense - remained unfinished at death but became French literature's most-read philosophical work. He died at thirty-nine, having transformed mathematics, physics, and religious thought.