The Plane

Here is a picture of a plane. Two lines are drawn inside the plane. Each of these lines is an axis. (Together they are called axes.) The axes are like landmarks that we can use to find different places in the plane.

We can label the axes to make them easier to tell apart. The axis that goes from side to side is the x-axis, and the axis that goes straight up and down is the y-axis.

Let's zoom in on one corner of the plane. (This corner is called the first quadrant.)

We have marked some of the points on each axis to make them easier to find. The point where the two axes cross has a special name: it is called the origin.

The gray lines will help us find points. When you make your own graphs, you can use the lines on your graph paper to help you.