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These are essentially arbitrary labels, but there is still some reason why those letters were chosen rather than some other letters such as a and b. Other letters are associated with a larger number of words which might turn out to be applicable to various graphs. A for altitude, b for babies, etc. X is the least used letter of the English (or French - Rene Descartes, inventer of the Cartesian coordinate system, was French)alphabet and therefore it seemed to be a good candidate for a new job, to stand for the unknown in an algebraic equation, and since y is the letter that comes after x, it seemed to have some logical connection, if you wanted to graph two variable quantities against each other.

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Q: Why is that the axes of the cartesian plane are called x and y?
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Related questions

What are the axis of a cartesian plane?

They are the x and y axes


What are the axes that cross at a point?

The x and y axes cross the origin on the Cartesian plane


Where the axes intersect at?

The x and y axes on the Cartesian plane intersect at the origin at right angles


Where the axes intersect?

The x and y axes on the Cartesian plane intersect at the origin at right angles


What is the point where the axes of a coordinate plane intersects?

The x and y axes intersect at the point of origin at (0, 0) on the Cartesian plane


What is the singular form of axes usually the x and y?

It is the x axis and the y axis and both axes are found on the Cartesian plane


Why are the x and y axes called what they are?

The ordinate is the y coordinate of a point and the abscissa is the x coordinate of a point and both axes intercept each other at the point of origin (0, 0) on the Cartesian plane.


What are axes in cartesian plane?

The horizontal line is the x axis and the vertical line is the y axis.


What are the coordinate axes?

The coordinate axes are the x and y axes that intersect each other at right angles at the point of origin (0, 0) on the Cartesian plane.


What is a cartesian plane?

A Cartesian plane is a 2-dimensional, flat surface. The plane has two mutually axes that meet, at right angles, at a point which is called the origin. Conventionally the axes are horizontal (x-axis) and vertical (y-axis) and distances from the origin are marked along these axes. The position of any point in the plane can be uniquely identified by an ordered pair, (p, q) where p is the distance of the point along the x-axis (the abscissa) and q is the distance of the point along the y-axis (the ordinate).


How do you use geometric method to find coordinates?

They are found on the Cartesian plane by means of the x and y axes


What is quadrant in cartesian coordinate system?

The x-and the y-axes of the two dimensional Cartesian coordinate system divide the plane in four. Each of these is a quadrant.