1596 – Descartes – bio
Rene Descartes was born in France in 1596. He is known as “the father of modern philosophy” and also contributed to mathematics and general science. The cartesian coordinate system is named for him and he created analytic geometry. He also did some work in the field of optics, with both refraction and reflection.
Prior to Descartes, many mathematicians had worked on using algebra to study principles of geometry (called algebraic geometry) but using a coordinate graphing system to draw shapes provided a new connection between algebra and geometry that revolutionized mathematics, created the field of analytic geometry and supplied foundational elements for calculus.
PRECURSOR:
-0300 – Euclid
-0287 – Archimedes
Menaechmus
Apollonius
1048 – Al-Khayyam
0965 – AlHazen
1170 – Fibonacci
CONCURRENT:
1564 – Galileo
1588 – Mersenne
1601 – Fermat
1623 – Pascal
Huygens
SUBSEQUENT:
Boyle
Halley
Wallis
1642 – Newton
1646 – Liebnitz
Snell
1707 – Euler
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