Tasha Johnson

Mat 113-104
Descartes Project
11/11/2013

Johnson, Tasha Descartes Project

Abstract
Rene Descartes, a man that when you say his name doesnt ring any bells. This name is not
talked about in everyday conversation. This name though not talked about nor recognized, is one
that we all should get to know. This man has opened our minds in many ways when it comes to
numbers and letters. Expanding his knowledge and then sharing it enabled us today to find out
what X or any other letter could represent in math. With the many contributions, Descartes
should not be a stranger to our society/culture.

Johnson, Tasha Descartes Project

Part 1: Rene Descartes Biography

Rene Descartes (March 31, 1596-February 11, 1650) was a mathematician, a writer and a
French philosopher. He was born in Descartes, France which was at one point named La
Haye en Touraine. Besides being a genius in math, Descartes also enjoyed writing about the
mind as well as being spiritual. His mother, Jeanne Brochard, passed away when he was
only one year of age and his father, Joachim, lived on and became a member of Parlement of
Brittany at Renes (Wikipedia para. 5).
Descartes was introduced to math and physics when he started attending Jesuit College
Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Fleche in 1606 or 1607 and graduated in 1616 (Wikipedia
para.5). After he graduated from that college he then attended the University of Poitiers and
received a Baccalaureate and license in law obeying the wishes of his father, though he was
not interested in law.
Due to Descartes interest in becoming a professional military officer he joined the Army
of Breda and studied military engineering in the Dutch Republic and felt at that time his
knowledge of math should expand. With that feeling he then when on to originate the
Cartesian coordinates, which is a system that represents relative points in a plane or space,
which is known as the x-axis and y-axis (x,y) (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia,6 th ed.
2012). He also originated Cartesian curves which are a part of the Cartesian coordinates and
basically consist of two quartic ovals. Descartes contributed the treatment of negative roots

Johnson, Tasha Descartes Project

and the convention of exponent notation and was also labeled the founder of analytical
geometry (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2012).
Descartes also managed to have other contributions other than math. He made advances
in optics, where he studied the reflection and refraction of light. Descartes also wrote a book
on physiology and worked in psychology. His findings on a psychology level were geared
towards emotions. He argued that emotions was physiological and that the control of the
physical expression of the emotion would control the emotions themselves where his work
on psychology is found in his Trait des passions de l'me (1649) (Columbia Electronic
Encyclopedia 6th ed. 2012).
Part 2: Validity of Websites
I found my sources by typing Rene Descartes name in www.google.com. Numerous of websites
came up but I chose the first one which was Wikipedia.com. I feel that Wikipedia is a reliable source
especially when the page is modified often. That tells me that someone is staying current on the
specific topic enough to update it. The page in regards to Rene Descartes was just modified on
November 10, 2013, so the information must be current and up to date. There are tons of references
available where the information was found which all seem to be reliable sources. The information
came from other encyclopedias or from other universities that have knowledge about Descartes. It
was very easy to navigate which made it easy to find the information that was needed because
everything was labeled boldly and the print of the text was a nice size. Major headings were in bold
print and important information in regards to Descartes was different in font from the original text or
in blue link form, available to click to get more information.
Infoplease.com is another site that I used and have never used before when inquiring for
information. This website was straight forward. I was looking mostly for Descartes contributions
and the paragraph pertaining to his contributions were in bold and easy to find. The information

Johnson, Tasha Descartes Project

made sense and I compared information from this site to Wikipedia and they were similar in regards
to information. It was harder to read information from Infoplease.com due to the fact that the print
was very small and complete sentences were not used. It seemed as if the author wanted information
in fragments rather than focusing on grammar or proper punctuation. Due to not much information
on the page, it was easy to navigate and find what I was looking for which were Descartes major
contributions.
My Thoughts
I found learning about Rene Descartes somewhat interesting. You sometimes wonder where the
things you learn come from. Its not often that we hear about the inventions of the things in the
educational world, but more of the inventions of things we use on a day to day basis, for example, the
invention of the light bulb or how electricity began. It was nice to know how algebra came about and
why there is such thing as an X and Y axis. I would never have thought of thinking of the concepts
that Descartes created and contributed, which is why I guess my name is Tasha Johnson and he is
Rene Descartes, someone that will be well known to people as soon as Math is introduced.

Johnson, Tasha Descartes Project

Work Cited Page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia 6th ed., 2012,

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/descartes-rene-major-contributionsto-science.html