On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping,10 lords a leaping, 9 ladies dancing, 8 maids a milking, 7 swans a swimming, 6 geese a laying, 5 gold rings, 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. Day NumberNumber of PresentsRunning Total Day NumberNumber of PresentsRunning Total The numbers of new gifts given on the consecutive days The combined gifts given on the consecutive days The cumulative total number of gifts given Pascals triangle is called after the French mathematician, and physicist Blaise Pascal (1623 1662) Although Pascals Triangle is named after the seventeenth century mathematician, Blaise Pascal, several other mathematicians knew about the triangle hundreds of years before his birth in The triangle appears to have been discovered independently by both the Persians and the Chinese during the eleventh century. The title of this diagram is The Old Method Chart of the Seven Multiplying Squares. It is from the front of Chu Shi-Chieh's book "Ssu Yuan Y Chien" (Precious Mirror of the Four Elements), written in In the book it says that the triangle was known about more than two centuries before that. It is thought that the Persian mathematician and poet Ghiyth ad-Dn Abul-Fat'h Umar ibn Ibrhm Khayym Neyshbri knew about this special triangle. He is better known as Omar Khayyam (1048 1122) China Persia now Iran France