Big Ideas Math: Modeling Real Life, Grade 6
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5. The Coordinate Plane
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Exercise 37 Page 375

In an ordered pair, the x-coordinate comes first and the y-coordinate comes second.

Location: Quadrant III
Graph:

Practice makes perfect

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 ( -4, -5), we first find -4 on the x-axis and make a mental note of this grid line. The x-coordinate -4 tells us to move 4 units to the left of the origin — the negative horizontal direction.

Next, we find -5 on the y-axis and follow this grid line until it collides with the grid line from our x-coordinate. The y-coordinate -5 tells us to move 5 units down from the origin — the negative vertical direction.

The point ( -4, -5) lies on the point at which these two grid lines intersect. Now we want to describe the location of Point Z. 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 Z has two negative coordinates. The quadrant where both the x- and y-coordinates are negative is the third quadrant, or Quadrant III. Therefore, the point is located in Quadrant III.