Question

work with a partner. on the left grid, you plot any point where two lines intersect and label it a. hide this from your partner and name the location of point a. now your partner plots it on the right grid, and you check grids to see if they match. swap roles, with your partner plotting a point and describing it for you to plot on your right grid. continue until you have done a total of 10 points. look back! why does the order of the two numbers that name a point matter? explain your thinking.

Explanation:

In a coordinate system, a point is represented by an ordered pair \((x,y)\). The first number \(x\) (abscissa) indicates the horizontal position (along the \(x -\)axis), and the second number \(y\) (ordinate) indicates the vertical position (along the \(y -\)axis). For example, the point \((2,3)\) is 2 units to the right of the origin along the \(x -\)axis and 3 units up along the \(y -\)axis, while the point \((3,2)\) is 3 units to the right along the \(x -\)axis and 2 units up along the \(y -\)axis. These are two different locations on the coordinate grid.

Answer:

The order of the two numbers in an ordered pair \((x,y)\) matters because the first number \(x\) gives the horizontal ( \(x -\)axis) position and the second number \(y\) gives the vertical ( \(y -\)axis) position of a point in the coordinate system. Swapping the values of \(x\) and \(y\) changes the location of the point on the grid.