Pasadena City (pop., 2000: 141,674), southeastern Texas, U.S., east of Houston. Founded in 1895, it was incorporated in 1929. After World War II the city grew rapidly, stimulated by nearby industrial development, especially in petrochemicals and aerospace. Northeast of the city is the site of the 1836 capture of Mexican Gen. Antonio Santa Anna after the Battle of San Jacinto.
Pasargadae \po-'sar-g3-,de\ Ancient Persian city, near modern Shiraz, Iran. It was the capital of Cyrus II, founder of the Achaemenian dynasty. He was said to have founded the city on the site of his victory over the last king of the Medes (c. 550 bc). The city was surrendered to Alexander the
Great in 330 bc. It was known for the majestic simplicity of its architec¬ ture; its ruins include the bases of several large buildings and the nearly intact tomb of Cyrus.
Pascal \pas-'kal\ Computer programming language named for Blaise Pas¬ cal and based partly on ALGOL. It was developed by Niklaus Wirth of Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology in the late 1960s as an educa¬ tional tool for systematic teaching of programming, with fast, reliable compilers. It was made available to the public in 1974 and was used by many universities for the next 15 years. Pascal strongly influenced lan¬ guages developed later, such as Ada. Complex data structures and algo¬ rithms can be described concisely by Pascal, and its programs are easy to read and debug.
pascal Unit of pressure, abbreviated Pa, in the International System of Units. Named for Blaise Pascal, the unit is a pressure of one newton per square meter (1 N/m 2 ). It is inconveniently small for many purposes, and the kilopascal (kPa), 1,000 N/m 2 , is more commonly used in engineering work (1 lb per sq in. equals 6.895 kPa).
Pascal \pas-'kal\, Blaise (b. June 19, 1623, Clermont-Ferrand, France—d. Aug. 19, 1662, Paris) French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. The son of a mathematician, he was a child prodigy, earning the envy of Rene Descartes with an essay he wrote on conic sec¬ tions in 1640. In the 1640s and ’50s he made contributions to physics (formulating Pascal's law) and mathematics (working on the arithmetic triangle, inventing a calculating machine, and contributing to the advance of differential calculus). For work done in his early years, he is regarded as the founder of the modern theory of probability. At the same time, he became increasingly involved with Jansenism. Les Provinciales were a series of letters defending Jansenism and attacking the Jesuits. His great work of Christian apologetics, Apologie de la religion chretienne, was never finished, but he put together most of his notes and fragments between 1657 and 1658; these were published posthumously as Pensees (1670). He returned to scientific work, contributing to the Elements de geometrie and publishing his findings on cycloid curves, but he soon returned to devotional life and spent his last years helping the poor. The pascal was named in his honour. See also Pascal's wager.
Pascal's law or Pascal's principle In fluid mechanics, the statement that in a fluid at rest in a closed container, a pressure change in one part is transmitted without loss to every portion of the fluid and to the walls of the container. The principle was first stated by Blaise Pascal, who also discovered that the pressure at a point in a fluid at rest is the same in all directions, and that the pressure would be the same on all planes passing through a specific point.
Pascal's wager Practical argument for belief in God formulated by Blaise Pascal. In his Pensees (1657-58), Pascal posed the following argu¬ ment to show that belief in the Christian religion is rationaclass="underline" If the Chris¬ tian God does not exist, the agnostic loses little by believing in him and gains correspondingly little by not believing. If the Christian God does exist, the agnostic gains eternal life by believing in him and loses an infi¬ nite good by not believing. William James objected to the argument that it supported belief in any religion that promised an eternal afterlife. Others have objected that though the argument does give one a reason for believ¬ ing in the Christian God, it does not make that belief “rational” in the proper sense.
Paschal \pas-'kal\ II orig. Raniero (b. Bieda di Galeata, near Ravenna—d. Jan. 21, 1118) Pope (1099-1118). He fostered the First Cru¬ sade and favoured Gregorian reforms, but his pontificate was dominated by the Investiture Controversy. Paschal came to terms on the issue of lay investiture with Henry I of England and Philip I of France (1107). His negotiations with Emperors Henry IV and Henry V were unsuccessful, and he was imprisoned by Henry V (1111). While a prisoner, he agreed to royal investiture of bishops and crowned Henry emperor, but a church council declared his concessions invalid, and the archbishop of Vienne excommunicated the emperor.
Pascin \pas-'ka n \, Jules orig. Julius Pincas (b. March 31, 1885, Vidin, Bulg.—d. June 1, 1930, Paris, France) Bulgarian painter. He trav¬ eled widely and lived in Austria and Germany, producing drawings for satirical journals, before moving to Paris in 1905. He moved to New York City during World War I and became a U.S. citizen but returned to Paris in 1920 and became associated with other Jewish artists, including Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modiguani, and Chaim Soutine. His most notable works
Parvati, bronze image, early Cola period, 10th century ad; in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, FREER GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, D.C.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Pashtun ► Passover I 1455
are thinly painted, delicately toned, ironic studies of women; he also painted portraits and a series of large-scale biblical and mythological scenes. Though financially successful, he was emotionally unstable; he hanged himself at 45.
Pashtun \,pash-'tun\ Any member of a Pashto-speaking people of south¬ eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. The Pashtun, who num¬ ber about 7.5 million in Afghanistan and 14 million in Pakistan, constitute the majority of the population of Afghanistan. Their origins are unclear: Pashtun tradition asserts that they are descended from Afghana, grandson of King Saul of Israel, but most scholars believe that they arose from an intermingling of ancient Aryans from the north or west with subsequent invaders. Each Pashtun tribe is divided into clans, subclans, and patriar¬ chal families. Disputes among the Pashtun over property, women, and personal injury often result in blood feuds between families and whole clans. Most tribal people are sedentary farmers; some are migratory herd¬ ers and caravaners. Large numbers of the Pashtun have always been attracted to military service.
Pasic Vpa-shet y ,\ English Vpa-shichX, Nikola (b. Dec. 31, 1845, Zaje- car, Serbia—d. Dec. 10, 1926, Bel¬ grade) Serbian and Yugoslav statesman. The editor of a socialist newspaper in Serbia, he was elected in 1878 to the legislature, where he opposed the authoritarian monarchy and advocated a parliamentary democracy. In 1881 he helped found the Radical Party, but he was forced to flee to Bulgaria in 1883. Returning to Serbia in 1889 under a new king, he served as premier (1891-92) and as ambassador to Russia (1893-94).
Forced into exile again because of his political radicalism (1899-1903), he returned to support the Karadjordjevic dynasty and King Peter I. As leader of the Radical Party, he served as pre¬ mier of Serbia during most of the period (1904-18), then helped create the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). As premier (1921-26), he pushed for a unitary constitution that confirmed Serbia’s dominance despite opposition from the historically separate regions.