Email this page to a friend

Cartesian coordinates

<mathematics, graphics> (After Renee Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician) A pair of numbers, (x, y), defining the position of a point in a two-dimensional space by its perpendicular projection onto two axes which are at right angles to each other.

x and y are also known as the abscissa and ordinate.

The idea can be generalised to any number of independent axes.

Compare polar coordinates.

< Previous Terms	Terms Containing Cartesian coordinates	Next Terms >
carpal tunnel syndrome Carriage Return Carrierless Amplitude/Phase Modulation carrier scanner carrier signal	abscissa Cartesian product complex number coordinate hypercube	Cartesian product CAS CAS 8051 Assembler cascade Cascading Style Sheets