Analytic Geometry (Descartes)

Coordinates turn curves into equations and equations into curves: algebra and geometry become one language.

In La Géométrie (1637) René Descartes located points by numbers along axes, so a curve becomes an algebraic equation; Pierre de Fermat found the same idea at about the same time. Newton and Leibniz needed this bridge for calculus. Every graph, map projection and computer drawing since rests on it.