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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes#Mathematical_legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes#Mathematic... I will look up the specif

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes#Mathematical_legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes#Mathematic... I will look up the specific paper where he proposed that a squared number need not represent only an area, for example.

civilized 5y ago
Ah, I get it now. Descartes suggested that the representation of numbers need not be dictated by the geometric interpretation of how they were calculated. For example, a^2 doesn't have to be represented as an area, even though geometrically it would be the area of a square.
- javajosh 5y ago
  The "paper" was La Géométrie[1], originally published as an appendix(!) to another work, Discourses on the Method [2]. Not sure why all the downvotes. Oh well. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_G%C3%A9om%C3%A9trie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_G%C3%A9om%C3%A9trie 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_on_the_Method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_on_the_Method