Blaise Pascal was a French scientist who made great contributions to philosophy, mathematics, and physics.
The pascal is a unit of the International System that allows mention of pressure . The name is a tribute to Blaise Pascal, a French scientist born in 1623 who remained in history for his contributions to physics , mathematics and philosophy .
The pascal (whose symbol is Pa ), in this sense, is equivalent to the uniform pressure that a force of 1 newton develops on a plane of 1 square meter. Among the most used multiples of the pascal, the hectopascal appears, equivalent to one hundred pascals and one millibar .
It is common for the pressure of the atmosphere to be expressed in hectopascals or millibars. The average pressure is equivalent to 1013 hectopascals or millibars : changes in this number will reveal, depending on the case, low or high pressure.
Pascal's Law
Known as Pascal's law or principle , on the other hand, is a statement by the aforementioned scientist about the transmission of the pressure of a fluid within certain types of containers. This law states that the pressure of the fluid located in a container with walls that cannot be deformed propagates with the same intensity towards any direction and at any point.
Pascal's wager , on the other hand, is a scientist's reasoning about the existence of God . For Pascal, despite the fact that there is no evidence, it is rational to make a bet in favor of its existence.
Pascal's triangle , in the field of mathematics, allows binomial coefficients to be represented according to a triangular organization.
The pascal is a unit of pressure.
A programming language
The Pascal programming language was designed by Nicklaus Wirth , a Swiss scientist specialized in computer science, who presented it in 1970 and named it in memory of Blaise , who died in 1662 . Wirth had the goal of developing a more accessible language for his programming students and that is why he relied on data structuring . Despite its humble beginnings, Pascal went from being a mere educational tool to giving rise to the creation of a large number of programs of various kinds.
Structured programming is one of the characteristics of the Pascal language , as well as its rigidity with respect to the data type of its variables; in other words:
- The structure of the code is clear, as it is divided into functions (also called procedures ). This makes it more readable and opposes it to the monolithic style, which is more difficult to read and less flexible;
- When declaring each variable, the data type must be specified (such as char , byte , integer or Boolean ) for its use to be enabled.
This last point is very characteristic of Pascal, since variables do not allow the assignment of values incompatible with their type , something that is normal in many languages but also very dangerous. This rigidity is ideal for getting used to creating solid and functional designs from the beginning, something that is difficult even for many expert programmers, and prevents unexpected errors due to incorrect use of variables .
Over the years, Pascal implemented object-oriented programming thanks to the compiler distributed by the Borland company. This language was later renamed Object Pascal and finally Delphi.
It is worth mentioning that Pascal is still used in some universities to teach the basics of programming to their students; Although this may seem impractical, given that no current product is developed using this language, some of its aforementioned characteristics make it ideal for generating good habits in students. Additionally, programmers often learn several languages throughout their lives without finding it overwhelming; On the contrary, it is beneficial for them to get used to changing rules and structures frequently, to strengthen the foundations and pose new challenges.