>>10919079In the beginning, there were not literal variables, no algebra, there were only numbers and arithmetic. Although the arabs started to use symbols, it was very hard for them, even for negative and irrational numbers, being accepted. Only in the 17th century there was a conmon ground from which mathematicias could work. Once there was algebaric equations, linear equations as well as cuadratic, cubic and quartic equations was widely known and used, for example, in astronomy. In particular linear systems of equations. On the other hand the determinants were used before the notion of matrices, as ways of knowing if a linear system has unique solution, for example by Leibniz. After a while of knowing determinants, only in the 19th century, there was understood the notion of matrix. And of a vector, is was clear only at the verge of 19th century. Yes, there was the notion of points and coordinates, earlier, in the 17th century with Descartes, and many notions related to vectors, but it was only until the 20th century that all these concepts were clarified.
