In our last episodes, we explored the mathematics of ancient Greece,
Zeno's paradoxes, Eudoxus' method of exhaustion, and Archimedes' extraordinary calculations.
After Archimedes' death in 212 BC, mathematics entered a long period of relative dormancy.
Welcome back to Men of Mathematics. Today we leap forward nearly 2,000 years to the birth of
modern mathematics.
René Descartes didn't just philosophize, he invented a way to turn geometry into algebra
and algebra into geometry.