Coordinates in all four quadrants
Across first, then up or down — and watch the signs when you cross an axis.
A coordinate point is written . The first number tells you how far to go across from the origin (positive right, negative left), and the second tells you how far to go up or down (positive up, negative down).
The two axes split the grid into four quadrants:
- Top right: both positive.
- Top left: negative, positive.
- Bottom left: both negative.
- Bottom right: positive, negative.
A neat trick for the midpoint of a line segment is to average the coordinates: . The midpoint of and is .
- : across first, then up or down.
- Positive right, negative left; positive up, negative down.
- Four quadrants — the signs tell you which one a point is in.
- Midpoint: average the two x-coordinates and the two y-coordinates.