Abstract
Spatial geometry starts in Book XI of Euclid’s Elements with a long list of definitions and boring propositions. It is here that analytic geometry shows its full power: one simply adds a third coordinate z. If you know how to calculate with two variables, you can also calculate with three.
vector, a quantity having direction as well as magnitude (from Latin vector, carrier; stems from vehere, to carry) (Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology)
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Ostermann, A., Wanner, G. (2012). Spatial Geometry and Vector Algebra. In: Geometry by Its History. Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29163-0_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29163-0_9
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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