Analytic geometry

Geometry
Projecting a sphere to a plane
Outline History (Timeline)
Branches Euclidean Non-Euclidean Elliptic Spherical Hyperbolic Non-Archimedean geometry Projective Affine Synthetic Analytic Algebraic Arithmetic Diophantine Differential Riemannian Symplectic Discrete differential Complex Finite Discrete/Combinatorial Digital Convex Computational Fractal Incidence Noncommutative geometry Noncommutative algebraic geometry
Concepts Features Dimension Straightedge and compass constructions Angle Curve Diagonal Orthogonality (Perpendicular) Parallel Vertex Congruence Similarity Symmetry
Zero-dimensional Point
One-dimensional Line segment ray Length
Two-dimensional Plane Area Polygon Triangle Altitude Hypotenuse Pythagorean theorem Parallelogram Square Rectangle Rhombus Rhomboid Quadrilateral Trapezoid Kite Circle Diameter Circumference Area
Three-dimensional Volume Cube cuboid Cylinder Dodecahedron Icosahedron Octahedron Pyramid Platonic Solid Sphere Tetrahedron
Four- / other-dimensional Tesseract Hypersphere
Geometers
by name Aida Aryabhata Ahmes Alhazen Apollonius Archimedes Atiyah Baudhayana Bolyai Brahmagupta Cartan Coxeter Descartes Euclid Euler Gauss Gromov Hilbert Huygens Jyeṣṭhadeva Kātyāyana Khayyám Klein Lobachevsky Manava Minkowski Minggatu Pascal Pythagoras Parameshvara Poincaré Riemann Sakabe Sijzi al-Tusi Veblen Virasena Yang Hui al-Yasamin Zhang List of geometers
by period BCE Ahmes Baudhayana Manava Pythagoras Euclid Archimedes Apollonius 1–1400s Zhang Kātyāyana Aryabhata Brahmagupta Virasena Alhazen Sijzi Khayyám al-Yasamin al-Tusi Yang Hui Parameshvara 1400s–1700s Jyeṣṭhadeva Descartes Pascal Huygens Minggatu Euler Sakabe Aida 1700s–1900s Gauss Lobachevsky Bolyai Riemann Klein Poincaré Hilbert Minkowski Cartan Veblen Coxeter Present day Atiyah Gromov
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In mathematics, analytic geometry, also known as coordinate geometry or Cartesian geometry, is the study of geometry using a coordinate system. This contrasts with synthetic geometry.

Analytic geometry is used in physics and engineering, and also in aviation, rocketry, space science, and spaceflight. It is the foundation of most modern fields of geometry, including algebraic, differential, discrete and computational geometry.

Usually the Cartesian coordinate system is applied to manipulate equations for planes, straight lines, and circles, often in two and sometimes three dimensions. Geometrically, one studies the Euclidean plane (two dimensions) and Euclidean space. As taught in school books, analytic geometry can be explained more simply: it is concerned with defining and representing geometric shapes in a numerical way and extracting numerical information from shapes' numerical definitions and representations. That the algebra of the real numbers can be employed to yield results about the linear continuum of geometry relies on the Cantor–Dedekind axiom.