DESCARTES ON THE

UNIFICATION OF ARITHMETIC
AND GEOMETRY
IV APMP
Davide Crippa
 PYTHAGORAS NIGHTMARE

4 5
1 ?

3 1
Incommesurability: There exist magnitudes
without measure.
 WHAT IS A RATIO?
Eudoxus-Euclid theory to solve the problem of
dealing with incommensurable magnitudes:

A ratio is a sort of relation in respect of size

between two magnitudes of the same kind.
(Df. 3)

Eudoxus-Euclid is not very illuminative.

 WHEN ARE TWO RATIOS THE
SAME?
Magnitudes are said to be in the same ratio, the
first to the second and the third to the fourth,
when, if any equimultiples whatever are taken of
the first and third, and any equimultiples
whatever of the second and fourth, the former
equimultiples alike exceed, are alike equal to, or
alike fall short of, the latter equimultiples
respectively taken in corresponding order.
(Df. 5)
DESCARTES AND PROPORTION THEORY

Descartes geometry does not innovate

Euclids theory of proportions.
But makes original use of this theory in order
to unify arithmetic and geometry.
 GEOMETRIC ALGEBRA
Any rectangular parallelogram is said to
be contained by the two straight lines containing the
right angle.
(El. II, Df. 1)

Geometrical interpretation of product between two

segments as the construction of a rectangle (or
parallelogram) contained by these segments.
 CONSTRAINTS ON GEOMETRICAL
ALGEBRA

 PAPPUS, BOOK VII

Now if (they are drawn) onto only two (lines),
the locus has been proven to be plane, but if
onto more than four, the point will touch loci
that are as yet unknown, but just called
curves,and whose origins and properties are
not yet (known) ... If onto more than six, one
can no longer say the ratio is given of the
something contained by four to that by the
rest, since there is nothing contained by more
than three dimensions.
 DESCARTESCALCULUS
The opening paragraph of the treatise is introduced by
an interesting subtitle:
how the calculus of arithmetic relates to operations of
geometry
 GEOMETRICAL CALCULUS
Calculus of arithmetic: + ; -
Operations of geometric:

To place a straight line equal to a given straight line

with one end at a given point (El, I, 2).
To cut off from the greater of two given unequal
straight lines a straight line equal to the less (El., I, 3).
 CARTESIAN MULTIPLICATION

taking a line which I shall call unity to relate it as closely

as possible to numbers, and which can in general be
chosen arbitrarily, and having given two other lines to find
a fourth line which shall be to one of the given lines as the
other is to unity.
CARTESIAN MULTIPLICATION
 AB = u, ? BD.BC
To find the product is to find the
fourth proportional BE, such that:
AB:BD::BC:BE (El. VI, 12).
 VAN SCHOOTEN ON UNITY
By unit, understand a determinate line, which
has to any of the remaining lines the same
relation that the unit has to a certain number.
Van Schooten, 1659, p. 147.
 EUCLID ON MULTIPLYING NUMBERS

A number is said to multiply a number when the

latter is added as many times as there are units
in the former.
El., VII, 15.
 EUCLID ON THE 4 PROPORTIONAL
Given three numbers, to investigate when it is
possible to find a fourth proportional to them.

For a,b,c,d numbers, if a:b :: c:d, then d =

bc/a.
If a =1, this can be used to define the product
between b and c.
Huswirth, Enchiridion algorismi, 1501
 Huswirth, Enchiridion algorismi, 1501

Multiplication is the creation of a number,

which is proportionally to the multiplicand as
the multiplicans is to the unit.

Multiplicatio est numeri procreatio,

proportionabiliter se habentis ad
multiplicandum sicut multiplicans ad unitatem
se habet.
 VAN SCHOOTENS COMMENTARY
In multiplication it is that: as the product is to the
multiplicandum, so the multiplicans is to the unity.
Or by alternation: as the product to the
multiplicans, so the multiplicandum to the unity.

In multiplicatione enim est: ut productum ad

multiplicandum, ita multiplicans ad unitatem. Vel
permutandum, ut productum ad multiplicantem,
sic multiplicandus ad unitatem.
 MAHONEY ON ALGEBRAIC THINKING

Operational symbolism;
Preoccupation with mathematical relations
rather than with mathematical objects;
Freedom from ontological commitments.
 ... In the universal constitution of the mathematical
sciences, although they regard different objects, only the
relations and proportions which are discovered in them will
be considered, and denoted by letters of the alphabet, in the
sort of very simple and well-known signs by us.

Unde cum in universa scientiarum mathematicarum

constitutione, licet diversa objecta respiciant, non nisi
relationes sive proportiones quaedam, quae in iis
reperiuntur,consentaneum est rationes atque proportiones
illas seorsim spectare, easque literis alphabeti, utpote notis
simplicissimis nobisque cognitissimis, insignire.

(E. Bartholin, Principia Matheseos Universalis, p. 1).

 GENERALITY OF SYMBOLIC ALGEBRA

Et quoniam Mathesis variis partibus constat,

quae omnia circa quantitatem versantur; res a
nostri seculi Luminibus eo redacta est, ut
generaliter ille omnes tractari, et quantitas
haec in universali et abstracto per literas
Alphabeti concipi possit.
Principia, praefatio, recto p. 2.
 AlGEBRA AS A SCIENCE OF QUANTITY

And since algebra consists of several parts,

which all regard the quantity, this work has
been written by the lights of our century in
such a way that he can deal with them all
generally, and can conceive the quantity
universally and in abstracto by means of the
letters of the alphabet.