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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 ( 2, -4), we first find 2 on the x-axis and make a mental note of this grid line. The x-coordinate 2 tells us to move 2 units to the right of the origin — the positive horizontal direction.
Next, we find -4 on the y-axis and follow this grid line until it collides with the grid line from our x-coordinate. The y-coordinate -4 tells us to move 4 units down from the origin — the negative vertical direction.
The point ( 2, -4) lies on the point at which these two grid lines intersect. Now we want to describe the location of Point U. 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.
Point U 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.