The Coordinate Plane – A8

About the lecture

In this mini-lecture, we cover Topic A8 by introducing the coordinate plane and the four quadrants. As we move through this mini-lecture, we focus on: (i) the graph, which contains two number lines (called axes) that each correspond to and measure a given quantity; (ii) the axes of a graph, which are often called the x-axis and the y-axis; (iii) how to identify points on the coordinate plane using the horizontal position (x) and vertical position (y) — thus, all points on the plane can be identified with a pair of numbers called coordinates given by (x, y); (iv) the origin, which has coordinates (0, 0); (v) negative numbers and numbers that are not whole numbers as coordinates; and (vi) the four quadrants, which are labelled counterclockwise (1-4) starting from the top right quadrant.

About the lecturer

Keith Ball is a Professor of Mathematics and the University of Warwick. His research interests are in functional analysis, high-dimensional and discrete geometry, and information theory. From 2010-14, Professor Ball served as the scientific director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) based in Edinburgh. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2013 and awarded the Whitehead Prize by the London Mathematical Society in 1992. Professor Ball is the author of Strange Curves, Counting Rabbits, and other Mathematical Explorations (2006), a recreational maths book aimed at those familiar with basic calculus.