Étienne Pascal

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Étienne Pascal (Clermont, May 2, 1588 - Paris, September 24, 1651) was the father of Blaise Pascal. He also had three daughters, two of which survived past childhood: Gilberte (°1620) and Jacqueline (°1625). His wife Antoinette Begon died in 1626.

He was a local judge and member of the petite noblesse, who also had an interest in science and mathematics. He taught his son himself.

Étienne Pascal served on a scientific committee (whose members included Pierre Hérigone and Claude Mydorge) set up to determine whether Jean-Baptiste Morin's scheme for determining longitude from the Moon's motion was practical.

The Limacon was first studied and named by Etienne Pascal and so this mathmatical curve is often called Pascal's Limacon.