Rene Descartes is known
for the Cartesian coordinate system and the belief that mathematics can explain
all of nature. He is the father of analytical geometry (by using algebra
to describe geometry). We often relate to his Cartesian coordinate system in
maps or graphs to know how far along and how far up it is. He
was also the one who invented the representation of unknowns in
mathematical equations by using x, y, and z, and then the
knowns by using a, b, and c.
