For the Arab mathematicians, algebra was a set of specific techniques that could be used to solve specific equations. There was little generalization and there was no way to write an equation to represent an entire class of equations an we would now write สมการ to represent all quadratic equations. There were only ways to write specific equations such as สมการ Thus it was impossible to write a formula like the quadratic formula like the quadratic formula It was only possible to give an example such as al-Khowarizmi's example of completing the square
In the late sixteenth century algebra matured into a much more powerful tool It became more symbolic Exponents were introduced; what had been written as" " A cubus ,"or"AAA"could now be written as The symbols+ .-, and =were also introduced
Francois Viete, a French lawyer who studied mathematics as a hobby began using using vowels to represent variables and consonants to represent constants. This allowed mathemticians to represent the entire class of quadratic equations by writing (where the vowel A is the cariable and the consonants B and C are the constants) and made it possible to discuss general techniques that could be used to solve classes of equarions. all these notional changes were slow o gain acceptance. No one mathematician adopted all the new notaions. Viete's algebra was quite verbal. He did not even adopt the symbol+until late in his life
In 1637 the famous French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes published LaGeometrie a work that explored the relationship between algebra and geometry in a way unforeseen by Apollonius and al-Khowarizmi. Descartes showed how to interpret algebraic operations and solve quadratic equations geometrically He also showed that algebra could be applied to geometric problems this approach is now called ''analytic geometry'' to the readers of Descartes it was an amazing method that combined algebra and geometry in new and unique ways. however it did not especially resemble our modern analytic geometry which consists of ordered pairs x and y axes and a correspondence between algebraic equations and their graphs Descartes used an x axis but he did not have a y axis Although he knew that an equation in two unknowns determines a curve he had very little interest in sketching curves he never plotted a new curve directly from its equation.
In 1629 eight years before Descartes's La Geometrie the French lawyer and amateur mathematician Pierre de fermat attempted to recreate one of the lost works of Apollonius on conic sections using refernces to that work made by other Greek mathematicians Fermat applied Viete's algebra to apollonius's work and vreated an analutic geometru much more similar to the modern one than was Descartes's Fermat empjhasized the sketching of graphs of eqrations He showed a parallelism between certain types of eequations and certain types of graphs For example he showed that the graph of '' d plalnum p. a planum aequetur b in e'' (d+b=be) is always a parabola Madern analytic geometry is thus considered to be in e'' is always a parabola Descartes's algebra was more modern and sophisticated than fermat' s or any of his contemporariesFermat on the other hand developed the important telation between geometric shapes and a coordinategraph Together they are credited with developing analytic geonetry to the point where calculus couke be invented