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Hey there! Ready to explore a magical grid that helps us map out points and draw shapes? Let's learn how to find our way around the coordinate plane!
Imagine a flat surface, like a giant sheet of graph paper, that goes on forever. This is called the coordinate plane, and we use it to pinpoint exact locations using just two numbers!
The flat world of the coordinate plane is built on two super important lines that cross each other. The horizontal line going left-to-right is the x-axis, and the vertical line going up-and-down is the y-axis.
The exact spot where the x-axis and y-axis cross is called the origin. Its address is (0, 0), and it is the starting line for finding any other point on the grid!
Plot the point (4, 3) on the coordinate plane starting from the origin (0,0).
- Find your starting line at the origin, which is the point (0, 0) where the axes meet.
- Look at the first number in the coordinate pair (4, 3). This is the x-coordinate, which tells you to move 4 units to the right along the horizontal x-axis.
- Look at the second number in the coordinate pair (4, 3). This is the y-coordinate, which tells you to move 3 units straight up.
- Draw a dot right at that final intersection, and label it (4, 3)!