Gottfried Leibniz 

The German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz was an outstanding thinker who developed a method of computation called calculus. Both Leibniz and the English scientist Isaac Newton (1642–1727) claimed to be first with the theory of calculus. In fact they developed it simultaneously and independently. Leibniz's knowledge was vast and diverse, covering all the intellectual disciplines of his day, including logic and optics. He also played an important role in European politics, confirming his patron-George Louis of Hanover – as the heir to the British throne, which he assumed, as George I, in 1714.

Blaise Pascal

The Frenchman Blaise Pascal was a brilliant mathematician and religious thinker. He was the founder of the modern theory of probability (an expression of the likelihood of something happening). Following work on barometers by Italian scientists Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) and Evangelista Torricelli (1608–47), Pascal made a mercury barometer and measured atmospheric pressure. He formulated Pascal's principle: in a liquid or gas, pressure applied to one point is transmitted equally to all parts of the fluid. He invented the first digital calculator, but it was too costly to make and was never used.