What is a point on a coordinate grid called?

Answer 1

The idea of graphing with coordinate axes dates all the way back to Apollonius in the second century B.C. Rene Descartes, who lived in the 1600s, gets the credit for coming up with the two-axis system we use today. The story goes that he lay in bed and watched flies crawling over tiles on the ceiling. He realized that he could describe a fly's position using the intersecting lines of the tiles. The system is often called the "Cartesian coordinate system" in his honor.

When working with equations that have two variables, the coordinate plane is an important tool. It's a way to draw pictures of equations that makes them easier to understand.

To create a coordinate plane, start with a sheet of graph or grid paper. Next, draw a horizontal line. This line is called the x-axis and is used to locate values of x. To show that the axis actually goes on forever in both directions, use small arrowheads at each end of the line. Mark off a number line with zero in the center, positive numbers to the right, and negative numbers to the left.