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In an ordered pair, the x-coordinate comes first and the y-coordinate comes second.
Location: Quadrant IV
Graph:
In an ( x, y) ordered pair, the first number tells us the x-coordinate of the point and the second number tells us the y-coordinate of the point. To graph ( 3, -1), we first find 3 on the x-axis and make a mental note of this grid line. The x-coordinate 3 tells us to move 3 units to the right of the origin — the positive horizontal direction.
Next, we find -1 on the y-axis and follow this grid line until it collides with the grid line from our x-coordinate. The y-coordinate -1 tells us to move 1 unit down from the origin — the negative vertical direction.
The point ( 3, -1) lies on the point at which these two grid lines intersect. Now we want to describe the location of this point. Recall what we know about the quadrants of a coordinate plane. The coordinate plane is divided into four quadrants by the x- and y-axes.
The point (3,-1) has positive x-coordinate and negative y-coordinate. The quadrant where the x-coordinate is positive and y-coordinate is negative is the fourth quadrant, or Quadrant IV. Therefore, the point is located in Quadrant IV.