How do you plot points?

Answer 1

Suppose you were told to locate "(5, 2)" (pronounced as "the point five two" or just "five two") on the place. Where would you look? To understand the meaning of "(5, 2)", you have to know the following rule: The x-coordinate (the number for the x-axis) always comes first. The first number (the first coordinate) is always on the horizontal axis.

So, for the point (5, 2), you would start at the "origin", the spot where the axes cross:

then count over to "five" on the x-axis. Then count up to "two", moving parallel to the y-axis... and then draw in the dot.

Finding the location of (5, 2) and then drawing its dot is called "plotting the point (5, 2)".

See related link for more information on plotting points.