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23rd August
On this day in
1638
,
René Descartes
, in a letter to
Mersenne
, proposed his
folium
(
x
3
+
y
3
=
2
a
x
y
x^3 + y^3 = 2axy
x
3
+
y
3
=
2
a
x
y
)
as a test case to challenge
Fermat
's differentiation techniques. To
Descartes
' embarrassment,
Fermat
's method worked better than his own.
See
THIS LINK
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