Editing Blaise Pascal (section)

==== ''Essay on Conics'' ====
Particularly of interest to Pascal was a work of [[Gérard Desargues|Desargues]] on [[conic section]]s. Following Desargues' thinking, the 16-year-old Pascal produced, as a means of proof, a short treatise on what was called the ''Mystic [[Hexagram]]'', ''Essai pour les coniques'' (''Essay on Conics'') and sent it — his first serious work of mathematics — to [[Marin Mersenne|Père Mersenne]] in Paris; it is known still today as [[Pascal's theorem]]. It states that if a [[hexagon]] is inscribed in a circle (or conic) then the three intersection points of opposite sides lie on a line (called the Pascal line).

Pascal's work was so precocious that [[René Descartes]] was convinced that Pascal's father had written it. When assured by Mersenne that it was, indeed, the product of the son and not the father, Descartes dismissed it with a sniff: "I do not find it strange that he has offered demonstrations about conics more appropriate than those of the ancients," adding, "but other matters related to this subject can be proposed that would scarcely occur to a 16-year-old child."<ref>''[[The Story of Civilization]]: Volume 8, "The Age of Louis XIV"'' by [[Will Durant|Will & Ariel Durant]]; chapter II, subsection 4.1 p. 56</ref>