Mathematics changed and improved during the Renaissance Era. For instance, merchants in Italy initially used mathematics to determine cost and revenue. They used to travel to the East and bring back items to Italy for trading. However, a commercial revolution led to technological innovations in water transportation which enabled merchants to hire other people and send them for goods. Consequently, mathematics started becoming complex as merchants wanted to calculate interest rates and understand bookkeeping. As money slowly replaced barter trade, mathematics began to improve. Italian abacists showed merchants different mathematical concepts such as geometry and arithmetic. In addition, they taught traders how to use the Hindu-Arabic numeric system and algebra in their businesses. The new system proved to be better than the Roman one, which required merchants to keep many account ledgers. During this time, counting boards were used as ledgers. Conversely, the Hindu-Arabic system only required the use of a pen and paper.

Early Renaissance thinkers followed Plato in emphasizing mathematics as the key to understanding nature. He had established the philosophy that the physical world was merely an imperfect reflection of the perfect forms.  However, during the Renaissance the concept that the physical world was indeed a perfect reflection of Divine intent.  These Neo Platonists  included Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, all of whom used geometric measurement to begin to explain the structure and motion of the physical world.  Although the culmination of their efforts came very late in the Renaissance, their efforts led to the foundation that Isaac Newton established in the 1700's  through his calculus to perfectly describe motion and rates of change.