This idea was developed by mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes who was called by many as Cartesius.
The Cartesian Plane has two lines intersecting at one point (0,0) forming a perpendicular line.
These two lines are:
X axis also known as abscissa which is the horizontal line.
Y axis also known as ordinate which is the vertical line
In this Plane, we have positive and negative values. The negative values start with point (0,0) to any number on the x axis that goes to the left of 0 and to any number on the y axis that goes below 0.
While the positive values start with point (0,0) to any number on the x axis that goes to the right of 0 and to any number on the x axis that goes above 0.
This plane has 4 quadrants:
Quadrant 1 has positive values of x and y
Quadrant 2 has negative values of x and positive values of y
Quadrant 3 has negative values of x and y
Quadrant 4 has positive values of x and negative values of y
We use the Cartesian Plane to mark a point on a graph according to its coordinates. The coordinates are always in ordered pair following this order: (x, y)
This is a very important lesson because this plane is used in most branches of mathematics :)
