Note: This Essay is an edit from a portion of this one from 4th Grade History
When Pascal was young, his family moved to Paris where his father bought bonds (he gave money to the government, and would get it back over time, with a little bit of interest) and used income from that to make a living. Then the French government decided not to pay back the bonds, due to the thirty years war, leaving Pascal’s father very poor. His father left Paris, leaving Blaise behind, but later returned, and the government gave him a job collecting taxes. This is where Pascal got his idea for his calculator. His father had to do lots of addition, and avoid mistakes. The punishment for a miscalculation is severe, and if it were to take place, the people might pay the wrong amount, and the government would get the wrong amount of money. Pascal’s calculator solved this problem.