Blaise Pascal was born at Cleremont Ferrand and was mathematically precocious publishing his `Essay on Conic Sections' at the age of 16. At the age of 12 or 13 he became a member of Mersenne's weekly discussion group, which later developed into the French Academy; during Pascal's time the group included the mathematician Descartes and Desargues. At the age of 23 Pascal turned towards religion and away from the worldly pleasures of mathematics. He returned to mathematics only once. When suffering from a toothache, he thought about some problems concerning the cycloid and his pain went away; he interpreted this as divine approval and completed several treatises on the topic. Ironically, in view of his somewhat mystical religious beliefs, he discovered the properties of what is now known as Pascal's Triangle while solving, along with Fermat,