Analytic Geometry

Apollonius and Oresme used reference lines to locate the points they were studying. But because they didn't know algebra, or because much of algebra hadn't been invented yet, they couldn't actually graph functions. The combination of algebra and geometry is called analytic geometry, because people who study analytic geometry use algebraic techniques like equations to analyze geometric objects like lines and curves.

Analytic geometry was invented in the 1600s. Many people contributed to its invention. The most famous were two Frenchmen named René Descartes and Pierre de Fermat.