Nicholas Oresme essentially thought of them in the 14th century. I'd be surprised if as you suggest there weren't a lot of sporadic particular uses of the idea. But Descartes's big accomplishment was to abstract the…
Nicholas Oresme essentially thought of them in the 14th century. I'd be surprised if as you suggest there weren't a lot of sporadic particular uses of the idea. But Descartes's big accomplishment was to abstract the…