Pascalschen

Pascalschen is the adjectival form in German used to denote something relating to Blaise Pascal, a 17th-century French mathematician, physicist and philosopher. In German-language technical writing, the term appears in several established phrases, such as Pascalsches Gesetz and Pascalsches Dreieck.

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) made foundational contributions across mathematics, physics and philosophy. In science, his work on hydrostatics and probability theory is especially influential. The phrase Pascalsches Gesetz (Pascal’s law) refers to the principle that pressure applied to a confined incompressible fluid is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid and to its walls. This principle underpins hydraulic systems and devices such as hydraulic presses, brakes and lifts, where a small force can generate a larger output force due to fluid pressure transmission.

Pascalsches Dreieck (Pascal’s triangle) describes a triangular array of numbers where each entry is the sum of the two entries above it. The rows correspond to binomial coefficients and the triangle is used in combinatorics, probability, and algebra to expand powers of sums. Pascal described this triangular arrangement in his 1654 work Traité du triangle arithmétique, though the concept appeared in earlier mathematical traditions.

In German usage, Pascalschen is primarily encountered in these attribution-based terms, linking current mathematical and physical concepts to Pascal’s historical contributions. The term thus serves as a linguistic marker of origin rather than a separate field or theory.