What are Cartesian coordinates?

What are Cartesian coordinates?

• Cartesian coordinates are a way of writing a position on a graph.
• They’re usually written as an ordered pair: (x, y).

x and y coordinates

In coordinates expressed as (x, y):

• The first number, x, is the horizontal position (left or right).
• The second number, y, is the vertical position (up or down).

Find the x-coordinate of the point (4, 7)

• The x-coordinate is the first number in the pair.
• So: the x-coordinate of (4, 7) is 4.

Find the y-coordinate of the point (8, 7)

• The y-coordinate is the second number in the pair.
• So: the y-coordinate of (4, 7) is 7.