Question 78910

well this indeed is a very hard question if you have never seen a graph before!

First, in the point (3,-5) you see two numbers.  The first number is 3 and the second number is -5.  The fist number is known as the x coordinate and the second number is known as the y coordinate.

It helps in the first place to be familiar with a number line.  If you wanted to plot just the number 3 on a number line you would probably start by drawing a horizontal line and putting some kind of mark on the number 3

<pre>
---|---|---|---|---|---|---*---|---|---|---|---|
   -3 -2  -1  0   1    2   3   4  5 
</pre>

Here you have two numbers and on your piece of paper or your monitor or your wall or your floor or your ceiling or a notebook or some other flat surface you have two different dimensions, horizontal and vertical:

<pre>
               Y
               |
               - 2
               |
               - 1
               |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---*---|---|---|---|---|  X
   -3 -2  -1  0   1    2   3   4  5 
               |
               - -1
               |
               - -2
               |
              

</pre>

Here I have drawn a horizontal number line for x, and a vertical number line for y

To plot the point (3,-5) you find the 3 on the x axis and the -5 on the y axis and you find the point on the flat surface that agrees with both of those places:

<pre>
               Y
               |
               - 2
               |
               - 1
               |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---X---|---|---|---|---|  X
   -3 -2  -1  0   1    2   3   4  5 
               |
               - -1        .
               |
               - -2        .
               |
               - -3        .
               |
               - -4        .
               |
               X -5 .  .   X   <-- X=3 and Y=-5
               |
               - -6
               |  

</pre>