Cartesian coordinates

cartesian coordinates

[kär′tē·zhən kō′ȯrd·nəts]

(mathematics)

The set of numbers which locate a point in space with respect to a collection of mutually perpendicular axes.

rectangular coordinates

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Cartesian coordinates

(mathematics, graphics)

(After Renee Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician) A pair of numbers, (x, y), defining the position of a point in a two-dimensional space by its perpendicular projection onto two axes which are at right angles to each other. x and y are also known as the abscissa and ordinate.

The idea can be generalised to any number of independent axes.

Compare polar coordinates.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Cartesian Coordinates

 

a rectilinear system of coordinates in a plane or in space (usually with identical scales on both axes). R. Descartes himself used only a system of coordinates in a plane (generally oblique) in the work Geometry (1637). Often the Cartesian coordinates are understood to mean the rectangular Cartesian coordinates, while the general Cartesian coordinates are called an affine system of coordinates.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.