The study of two-dimensional analytic geometry has gone in and out of fashion several times
over the past century, however this classic field of mathematics has once again become popular
due to the growing power of personal computers and the availability of powerful mathematical
software systems, such as Mathematica, that can provide an interactive environment for study￾ing the field. By combining the power of Mathematica with an analytic geometry software
system called Descarta2D, the author has succeeded in meshing an ancient field of study with
modern computational tools, the result being a simple, yet powerful, approach to studying
analytic geometry. Students, engineers and mathematicians alike who are interested in ana￾lytic geometry can use this book and software for the study, research or just plain enjoyment
of analytic geometry.
Mathematica provides an attractive environment for studying analytic geometry. Mathe￾matica supports both numeric and symbolic computations, meaning that geometry problems
can be solved numerically, producing approximate or exact answers, as well as producing gen￾eral formulas with variables. Mathematica also has good facilities for producing graphical
plots which are useful for visualizing the graphs of two-dimensional geometry