5 lines
1.3 KiB
Markdown
5 lines
1.3 KiB
Markdown
# Analytic Geometry
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Analytic geometry is part of [mathematics](math.md) that solves [geometric](geometry.md) problems with [algebra](algebra.md); for example instead of finding an intersection of a line and a circle with ruler and compass, analytic geometry finds the intersection by solving an equation. This is very important in computing as computers of course just work with numbers and aren't normally capable of drawing literal pictures and drawing results from them -- that would be laughable. Analytic geometry finds use especially e.g. in [computer graphics](graphics.md), in methods such as [raytracing](raytracing.md) where we need to compute intersections of rays with various mathematically defined shapes in order to render 3D images. Of course the methods are used in other fields, for example [rocket science](rocket_science.md).
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[Fun](fun.md) fact: approaches in the opposite direction also exist, i.e. solving mathematical problems physically rather than by computation. For example [back in the day](back_then.md) when there weren't any computers to compute very difficult [integrals](integral.md) and computing them by hand would be immensely hard, people literally cut physical function plots out of paper and weighted them in order to find the integral. Awesome oldschool [hacking](hacking.md). |