Rene Descartes and Mathematics

Rene Descartes was born in La Haye, France on March 31, 1596. Descartes had a brilliant mind and was intensely educated. He was the youngest of 3 children. His mother died within his first year of life. Due to his passing of his mother, his father decides to send the children to live with their grandmother, but his father saw a lot of potential for Descartes education and place him in a high educational environment. By the age of 8, Descartes attended Jesuit college. Looking through the scheduling of young descartes, we can see how he might have been sickly seeing how he would sleep until mid morning and work around the university's schedule. Descartes was a very good student in which studied philosophy for preparation in the future. Later Descartes would receive a degree in law by the age of 22. The father of Analytical Geometry. His nickname for his contribution to geometry, his main achievement was to first form a bridge to connect the concepts between algebra and geometry. For the close examination and clarity demonstrated from Descartes , he is widely acclaimed as first mathematician who laid the foundation of modern geometry that resulted in development of analysis and calculus(Descartes 1), as stated in the article Rene Descartes'. His results explained how you can solve algebraic equation using geometrical shapes. Descartes Main contribution to calculus was bringing forth his coordinate system. His coordinate system later known as ,Cartesian coordinate system tended to explain the algebraic equations through geometrical shapes. He invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y and z.( Descartes 2). The contribution was used by many other philosophers such as Newton to help evolve a new branch of mathematics. Descartes would even later apply his geometric method to physics in which explained the deducted method in which stated, results can be inferred by perceptions of geometric properties of body (Descartes 3). Descartes contributions were mind opening and clarified new doors for the challenges philosophers faced. In conclusion, The father of Analytical Geometry was an incredibly important factor to the development of mathematical methods in which are used today. Descartes interest in the creation of connecting the concepts between algebra and geometry was astonishing. The way he connected the solutions of Algebreic equations by using the shapes provided

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