Topics in the History of Mathematics: Marin Mersenne - The Birth of Modern Geometry (1988)

Marin Mersenne - The Birth of Modern Geometry

Marin Mersenne was a French monk of the seventeenth century. He sought to break the wall of secrecy behind which scholars were hiding themselves and their discoveries. This film shows how he encouraged co-operation between scientists and how he managed to break through the silence and publicize Descartes’ development of co-ordinate geometry.