Rene Descartes

Date of Birth: 3/31/1596

Date of Death: 2/11/1650

Birthplace: La Haye en Touraine, Indre-et-Loire, France

Rene Descartes was an extremely famous French philosopher, who also contributed deeply to the field of mathematics. He was born in France, but spent his final days in Sweden. Descartes was well known and well respected amongst his peers.

Descartes is credited with providing the groundwork for whatSir Isaac Newton used to help create modern day calculus. In addition, he is also credited with the creation of analytical geometry - a field of mathematics that combines both algebra and geometry. Most notably, thecoordinate plane is commonly referred to as the Cartesian Coordinate because Descartes was so instrumental in developing it.

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