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What did Blaise Pascal discover about pressure in liquids at rest?
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Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal, oil painting by an anonymous artist, c. 1650; in the Musée Carnavalet–Histoire de Paris, Paris. Pascal laid the foundation for probability theory.
Blaise Pascal made fundamental contributions to hydrostatics through his study of fluids at rest. His discoveries are summarized by Pascal’s principle, which states that a change in pressure applied to a fluid confined in a closed container is transmitted undiminished to every portion of the fluid and to the walls of the container.12
Additionally, Pascal discovered that the pressure at any specific point within a fluid at rest is identical in all directions; consequently, the pressure exerted is the same on all planes passing through that point. These insights were instrumental in the development of the hydraulic press, a device that utilizes these principles to multiply force, and they remain foundational to the study of fluid mechanics.12