René Descartes

René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist and
lay Catholic who invented coordinate geometry, linking the previously separate fields of geometry and
algebra. He was One of the most notable intellectual figures of the Dutch Golden Age. Descartes' influence in
mathematics is apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system was named after him. He is credited as the father
of analytic geometry also called as coordinate geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry—used in
the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. Descartes "invented the convention of representing
unknowns in equations by x, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and c". He also "pioneered the standard notation"
that uses superscripts to show the powers or exponents; for example, the 2 used in x2 to indicate x squared. 
He was first to assign a fundamental place for algebra in the system of knowledge, using it as a method to
automate or mechanize reasoning, particularly about abstract, unknown quantities. Descartes professed that
the abstract quantity a2 could represent length as well as an area. This was in opposition to the teachings of
mathematicians such as François Viète, who insisted that a second power must represent an area. Although
Descartes did not pursue the subject, he preceded Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in envisioning a more general
science of algebra or "universal mathematics," as a precursor to symbolic logic, that could encompass logical
principles and methods symbolically, and mechanize general reasoning. Descartes was also one of the key
figures in the Scientific Revolution.

Real life uses of Coordinate Geometry

1.Location of Air Transport:

Air traffic is managed and regulated by using coordinate geometry. Coordinates of the flight are
used to describe its current location of the aircraft. Even if an aircraft moves a small distance
(up, down, forward or backward), the coordinates of flight are updated in the system for every
slight change in its position.

2.GPS:
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides
information of location and time all weather conditions.

In a GPS, the longitude and the latitude of a place are its coordinates. The distance between 2
places in GPS is found using the distance formula.
3.Latitude and Longitude:
For the real world locations, a coordinate framework is required for describing the accurate
location of a place. So for this purpose, a special coordinate system called geographical
coordinate system is used to assign geographic locations. In real life, when weather forecasters
are tracking hurricanes, they note the absolute location on a periodic basis to see the path of
the storm and try to predict the future path based partially on these findings.

4.Digital World:
Another example of the usage of coordinate plane is the text file or PDF file. In these files, the
words or images are written or modified with the use of coordinate geometry. Any PDF file,
which contains text, and images is read using a 2-dimensional coordinate (x, y) system. Scanner
and photo copying machine also uses coordinate geometry to produce the exact copy of the
original image provided to it.

5. Map Projections:
Map Projection is a technique to map any 3D curved object on a flat 2D surface. A special type
of coordinate system is used called as a projected coordinate system for this technique. These
are mainly used to represent the maps on computer screen. Both two-dimensional (2D) and
three-dimensional (3D) Cartesian coordinate systems are helpful in describing shape and
features of the geographic location using x- and y-values