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Drawing graphs
The Cartesian coordinate system
- The Cartesian coordinate system is a grid which uses two axes of reference — a horizontal or \(x\)-axis and a vertical or
\(y\)-axis.
- These two axes intersect at a point called the origin.
- Any point can be described exactly by using an ordered pair of numbers associated with it in the Cartesian Plane — it’s
(\(x\)-coordinate, \(y\)-coordinate), and abbreviate this to \((x, y)\).
- The \(x\) and \(y\)-axes divide the Cartesian plane into quarters. These quarters are called quadrants and are numbered as in the figure:
