Sunday, June 24, 2012

Cartesian Coordinate System

A cartesian coordinate system usually consists of two perpendicular number lines, one horizontal say XX’ and one vertical say YY’. We combine both the lines in such a way that the two lines cross each other at their zeroes or origins. The horizontal line XX’ is called the x-axis and the vertical line is called the y-axis. The point of intersection of these two lines is called the origin usually denoted by letter O.

The points of the x-axis to the right (OX) of the origin represent positive numbers and the points of the x-axis to the left (OX’) of the origin represent negative numbers . Similarly, the points of the y-axis above (OY) the origin represent positive numbers and the points of the y-axis below(OY’) the origin represent negative numbers.

The x –axis and the y – axis divide the plane into four parts, these parts are called the quadrants. Quadrants are numbered I , II , III and IV anticlockwise from OX.

Every point in the rectangular plane is described by an ordered pair of real numbers, (x,y). The x and y are called the coordinates of the point. The x - coordinate of a point is its perpendicular distance from the y – axis measured along the x – axis. Similarly the y-coordinate of a point is its perpendicular distance from x–axis measured along y–axis.

This is a Java Applet created using GeoGebra from www.geogebra.org - it looks like you don't have Java installed, please go to www.java.com

1 comment:

  1. The Cartesian system is used to understand the complex numbers and different equations.
    rectangular prism

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