Graphing
- Author:
- K Redmond
Graphing is done on a Cartesian coordinate system. The coordinate grid has the x-axis, which is horizontal (left to right), and the y-axis, which is vertical (up and down). The center, where both axes meet, is called the origin.
All points, or ordered pairs, are graphed in the format (x, y), meaning that when a point is graphed, the x-axis is used first and the y-axis is used second. An example of some points being plot is listed below.
As you can see, since the x-value of any coordinate pair is listed first, we look left and right from the origin first. From where we end up, we either move up or down for the y-value, since it is listed second. Below is a chance to practice plotting some points.
Directions: Plot the points listed on the right. To plot a point, click and drag the red points to the correct position. Pressing "Submit" will show you the coordinates of the points you plot. If incorrect, pressing "Try Again" will give you the chance to plot the same points again. Pressing "New" will give you new points to plot.