In 1637 the French philosopher Rene Descartes published, as an appendix to his Discourse on Method, the essay La Geometrie, which showed how to describe geometrical curves by algebraic equations, by locating points with coordinates measured from fixed axes. The Cartesian coordinate system, named after him, linked algebra and geometry and so enabled analytic geometry, which Pierre de Fermat had also invented independently. It was the essential step towards the calculus of Newton and Leibniz and for much of modern mathematics and physics. The Discourse also contains his famous phrase, 'I think, therefore I am'.
Before and after
- 1636Founding of Agawam
- 8 September 1636Founding of Harvard University
- 4 October 1636Battle of Wittstock
- 1637Founding of Taunton
- 1637Descartes publishes La Geometrie: algebra meets geometry
- February 1637Tulip mania peaks in Holland
- 1638Construction of Schönbrunn Palace
- from 1638 to 1651Wars of the Three Kingdoms
- 5 September 1638Birth of Louis XIV of France
More in Science & technology
- 1543De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
- 21 June 1646Birth of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- October 1684Leibniz publishes the first paper on calculus
- 15 April 1707Birth of Leonhard Euler
- 20 March 1727Death of Isaac Newton
- 28 August 1749Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 17th century.