Cartesian PlanesGetting to the Point

It all started with a fly, and a man named René Descartes…

How it Came to Be:

One day, in the 1600s, René Descartes lay in his bed and saw a fly on his ceiling. As he loved to think about

math, he thought about how he could tell someone exactly where that fly was. This is how the Cartesian Plane

came to be!

The Cartesian PlaneA Cartesian Plane is used to situate an

object, place or point. It locates a point specifically.A Cartesian Plane has 2 axes: horizontal

axis and vertical axis. Each point on a Cartesian Plane is

represented by what we call an ordered pair. Ex: (2,3).

2 = number on horizontal axis3 = number on vertical axis

The ordered pair where the horizontal and vertical axes meet is (0,0), also known as the origin. To read an ordered pair, we always start with the number on the horizontal axis and then the number on the vertical axis. You mark a point by how far along it is and how far up it is.

When you connect the points of ordered pairs, you can sometimes see images!