Abscissa and ordinate Abscissa and ordinate In mathematics, the abscissa (; plural "abscissae" or "abscissæ" or "abscissas") and the ordinate are respectively the first and second coordinate of a point in a coordinate system. The abscissa of a point is the signed measure of its projection on the primary axis, whose absolute value is the distance between the projection and the origin of the axis, and whose sign is given by the location on the projection relative to the origin (before: negative; after: positive). The ordinate of a point is the signed measure of its projection on the secondary axis, whose absolute value
Graph of a function formula_2 itself. The graph of the function formula_10 defined by is the set the subset of formula_12 From the graph, the domain formula_14 is recovered as the set of first component of each pair in the graph formula_15. Similarly, the range can be recovered as formula_16. The codomain formula_17, however, cannot be determined from the graph alone. The graph of the cubic polynomial on the real line is If this set is plotted on a Cartesian plane, the result is a curve (see figure). The graph of the trigonometric function is If this set is plotted on a three dimensional