section_path: Mathematics/Influence on Newton's mathematics
section_name: Influence on Newton's mathematics
paragraph_text: Influence on Newton's mathematics
  
  Current popular opinion holds that Descartes had the most influence of anyone on the young Isaac Newton, and this is arguably one of his most important contributions. Descartes' influence extended not directly from his original French edition of La Géométrie, however, but rather from Frans van Schooten 's expanded second Latin edition of the work. Newton continued Descartes' work on cubic equations, which freed the subject from fetters of the Greek perspectives. The most important concept was his very modern treatment of single variables.