Document Type

Project

Publication Date

Spring 2015

Keywords

History of mathematics, Tangent line problem

Abstract

Pierre de Fermat and René Descartes were two brilliant 17th century mathematicians who have had lasting impacts on modern mathematics. Descartes laid the groundwork for the Cartesian coordinate system that is frequently employed in modern mathematics and Fermat’s last theorem vexed the mathematics community until Wiles’ proof was published in 1995. Amidst their many ground-breaking accomplishments these two men produced solutions for another mathematical problem - developing a general method to find the tangent line to a curve.

In spite of their apparent genius, neither man’s method had the lasting impact of their other works. Descartes’ and Fermat’s methods were quickly superseded by the development of calculus thirty years later. In many ways these methods contributed to the development of calculus, yet in others they drastically deviated from it. This deviation is the driving force behind this investigation: why were their methods so different? And what does this reveal about the development of mathematics?

Department

Mathematics

Comments

Math 490 / Honors Senior Project

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Curves--Early works to 1800; Mathematics--Early works to 1800

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

Fermat, Pierre de, 1601-1665; Descartes, René, 1596-1650

Genre/Form

student projects; term papers

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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