SAMPIANO, FROILAND YANSON ANALYTIC GEOMETRY

FIRST YEAR, BSCE

MTWThF 12:00NN 02:00PM

APRIL 22, 2015

Analytic Geometry
HISTORY
Ancient Greece
The Greek mathematician Menaechmus solved problems and proved theorems by using a method that
had a strong resemblance to the use of coordinates and it has sometimes been maintained that he had
introduced analytic geometry.
Apollonius of Perga, in On Determinate Section, dealt with problems in a manner that may be called an
analytic geometry of one dimension; with the question of finding points on a line that were in a ratio to the
others. Apollonius in the Conics further developed a method that is so similar to analytic geometry that his
work is sometimes thought to have anticipated the work of Descartes by some 1800 years. His application
of reference lines, a diameter and a tangent is essentially no different from our modern use of a
coordinate frame, where the distances measured along the diameter from the point of tangency are the
abscissas, and the segments parallel to the tangent and intercepted between the axis and the curve are
the ordinates. He further developed relations between the abscissas and the corresponding ordinates that
are equivalent to rhetorical equations of curves. However, although Apollonius came close to developing
analytic geometry, he did not manage to do so since he did not take into account negative magnitudes
and in every case the coordinate system was superimposed upon a given curve a posteriori instead of a
priori. That is, equations were determined by curves, but curves were not determined by equations.
Coordinates, variables, and equations were subsidiary notions applied to a specific geometric situation.

Persia
The eleventh century Persian mathematician Omar Khayym saw a strong relationship between
geometry and algebra, and was moving in the right direction when he helped to close the gap between
numerical and geometric algebra with his geometric solution of the general cubic equations, but the
decisive step came later with Descartes.

Western Europe
Analytic geometry was independently invented by Ren Descartes and Pierre de Fermat, although
Descartes is sometimes given sole credit.
Descartes made significant progress with the methods in an essay titled La Geometrie (Geometry), one of
the three accompanying essays (appendices) published in 1637 together with his Discourse on the
Method for Rightly Directing One's Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences, commonly referred to
as Discourse on Method. This work, written in his native French tongue, and its philosophical principles,
provided foundation for calculus in Europe. Initially the work was not well received, due, in part, to the
many gaps in arguments and complicated equations. Only after the translation into Latin and the addition
of commentary by van Schooten in 1649 (and further work thereafter) did Descartess masterpiece
receive due recognition.
Pierre de Fermat also pioneered the development of analytic geometry. Although not published in his
lifetime, a manuscript form of Ad locos planos et solidos isagoge(Introduction to Plane and Solid Loci)
was circulating in Paris in 1637, just prior to the publication of Descartes' Discourse. Clearly written and
well received, the Introduction also laid the groundwork for analytical geometry. The key difference
between Fermat's and Descartes' treatments is a matter of viewpoint: Fermat always started with an

algebraic equation and then described the geometric curve which satisfied it, whereas Descartes started
with geometric curves and produced their equations as one of several properties of the curves. As a
consequence of this approach, Descartes had to deal with more complicated equations and he had to
develop the methods to work with polynomial equations of higher degree.

Rene Descartes
FATHER OF ANALYTIC GEOMETRY

Analytic Geometry, created by Descartes, is the link which connected algebra and geometry. Descartes'
inspiration, Isaac Beeckman, was the missing key to unlock Descartes' interest in math and science.
Beeckman and Descartes challenged each others ideas and beliefs. While also questioning each others
theories, they both unconditionally respected each others ideas and beliefs. In 1618, while suggesting to
Beeckman a more efficient way to solve his theory, Descartes applied algebraic formulas to solve
geometric problems in order complete the uncompleted equation. In that same year, a section in
Beeckman's journal described Descartes remarkable method of using the foundation of algebra and
applying it to geometry. For that reason, Descartes was titled "the father of analytical geometry".
Descartes stated every subject, mainly directed at science, used math in order to solve daily life
situations, writing philosophy, and defying questionable theories of science. Therefore, he believed math
and science are intertwined together and could not live without one or the other. In his eyes, math was
science, and science was math. They were the same subject in his mind.

Ren Descartes (1596-1650) is generally regarded as the father of Analytical Geometry. His name in
Latin is Renatius Cartesius so you can see that our terminology Cartesian plane and Cartesian
coordinate system are derived from his name! Analytical Geometry is also often called Cartesian
Geometry or Coordinate geometry.

Descartes is also generally regarded as the father of modern philosophy. His life spanned one of the
greatest intellectual periods in the history of all civilization. To mention only a few of the giants: Fermat
and Pascal were his contemporaries in mathematics. Shakespeare died when Descartes was twenty,
Descartes outlived Galileo by eight years, and Newton was eight when Descartes died. Descartes is so
famous that the town in France where he was born La Haye has been renamed to Descartes. His
face has been on many stamps throughout the world.
Descartes believed that a system of knowledge should start from first principles and proceed
mathematically to a series of deductions, reducing physics to mathematics. In his Discours de la Mthode
(1637) the full title was Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth
in the Sciences he advocated the systematic doubting of knowledge, believing as Plato that sense
perception and reason deceive us and that man cannot have real knowledge of nature. The only thing
that he believed he could be certain of was that he was doubting, leading to his famous phrase "Cogito
ergo sum", (I think, therefore I am). From this one phrase, he derived the rest of his philosophy.

Descartes formulates the following principles for the reasoning process:

accept nothing as true except that which you recognize as clearly such;

divide each difficulty that you meet into manageable pieces;

proceed in your thinking, stage by stage, from the simple to the complex;

review your thinking carefully to ensure that nothing has been omitted.

Descartes showed that if a geometric construction requires in its analytic form nothing but addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division, and the extraction of square roots, then it can be achieved with ruler
and compass. These arithmetic operations are to be applied to the two coordinates of each point given by
the construction problem. Conversely if it can be achieved with ruler and compass, then when
represented analytically all points involved in the construction will have coordinates that can be obtained
from those of the points initially given by these five arithmetic operations. The results may be very
complicated, for example, if (a; b) and (c; d) are two of the points given, one new coordinate might be

Analytic Geometry
DEFINITION

In classical mathematics, analytic geometry, also known as coordinate geometry, or Cartesian geometry,
is the study of geometry using a coordinate system. This contrasts with synthetic geometry.
Analytic geometry is widely used in physics and engineering, and is the foundation of most modern fields
of geometry, including algebraic, differential, discrete and computational geometry. Usually the Cartesian
coordinate system is applied to manipulate equations for planes, straight lines, and squares, often in two
and sometimes in three dimensions. Geometrically, one studies the Euclidean plane (two dimensions)
and Euclidean space (three dimensions). As taught in school books, analytic geometry can be explained
more simply: it is concerned with defining and representing geometrical shapes in a numerical way and
extracting numerical information from shapes' numerical definitions and representations. The numerical
output, however, might also be a vector or a shape. That the algebra of the real numbers can be
employed to yield results about the linear continuum of geometry relies on the CantorDedekind axiom.
Analytic Geometry is a branch of algebra that is used to model geometric objects - points, (straight) lines,
and circles being the most basic of these. Analytic geometry is a great invention of Descartes and Fermat.
Investigation of geometric objects using coordinate systems. Because Ren Descartes was the first to
apply algebra to geometry, it is also known as Cartesian geometry. It springs from the idea that any point
in two-dimensional space can be represented by two numbers and any point in three-dimensional space
by three. Because lines, circles, spheres, and other figures can be thought of as collections of points in
space that satisfy certain equations, they can be explored via equations and formulas rather than graphs.
Most of analytic geometry deals with the conic sections. Because these are defined using the notion of
fixed distance, each section can be represented by a general equation derived from the distance formula.