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 Cartesian coordinate system, the result is a surface (see figure). Oftentimes it is helpful to show with the graph, the gradient of the function and several level curves. The level curves can be mapped on the function surface or can be projected on the bottom plane. The second figure shows such a drawing of the graph of the function: The graph of a function is contained in a Cartesian product of sets. An X–Y plane is a cartesian product of two lines, called X and Y, while a cylinder is a cartesian product of a line and a circle, whose