Chapter 1

Cartesian Coordinate Systems

Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems.

— Sherlock Holmes from A Study in Scarlett (1887)

3D math is all about measuring locations, distances, and angles precisely and mathematically in 3D space. The most frequently used framework to perform such calculations using a computer is called the Cartesian coordinate system. Cartesian mathematics was invented by (and is named after) a brilliant French philosopher, physicist, physiologist, and mathematician named René Descartes, who lived from 1596 to 1650. René Descartes is famous not just for inventing Cartesian mathematics, which at the ...

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