1.

1 Graphs and Graphing Utilities

Points and Ordered Pairs
The Cartesian Coordinate system provides a unique medium to represent equations physically. The 2-D coordinate
system crosses x and y axes at the origin. Ordered Pairs are used to identify specific points on the Cartesian Plane.
Considering they are called ordered pairs, the order is very important. Let's check out some ordered pairs in our
Cartesian coordinate system:

There are a couple of important things to note in our

Coordinate System. It has 4 quadrants in it that
sequence in a counter-clockwise fashion starting with
Quadrant I. Also note our ordered pair coordinates in
the quadrants. They are called ordered pairs because
the order is important, the X-coordinate always comes
first.Also, the values for x and y change with each
quadrant. Check the table below to see some
properties that can give us some basic information
about our coordinates.

Value Quadrant
(x,y) I Note that the values for x and y will always point to what quadrant
(-x,y) II the coordinate point is in. For example, a positive x and a negative y
(-x,-y) III will always be in quadrant IV.

(x,-y) IV

Graphs of Equations
We can also represent equations on our coordinate system. It's a great way to look at an equation which offers set of
values for a given variable. For instance, lets look at the equation y = x2:

The graph of the equation gives a great view of all the output (y)
values for our input (x). We know some of these points from
solving the equation algebraically:

Output (y) Input (x) All the values we have are

solutions to the equation,
4 2 but they are also discrete
4 -2 points on our graph. All the
points in-between our whole
9 3
numbers also appear on the
0 0 graph.
y=x2

1.1 Graphs and Graphing Utilities Page 1

So lets think a little harder about this seemingly simple relationship. There are some key terms that we can understand
if we take a close look at what exactly our graph shows us. The blue curve represents a set of all values of x and y (just
like the points in our table) that satisfy the equation y=x2. We can put in any number we want for x and we will get out
a given value for y that solves the equation, and that point will be on our blue curve. Since we put in a number for x
and get out a number for y, we call our x variable the input, and our y variable our output. Another way of saying it is
that our x variable is our independent variable (because we can independently pick it out of the sky) and the y variable
is our dependent variable (since it depends on what we pick for x).

Critical Points
All functions that we will encounter have a number of critical points that we can easily establish to get a grasp of what
the graph will look like. The easiest of these to get are intercepts. An intercept is where the graph intersects either the
x-axis or y-axis. If we think of the relationship between values in our function and points on the graph, we can spot
where these intercepts occur. A y-intercept will occur when the y-value of our function is zero. The same goes for our
x-intercept. So now we know where our critical points occur graphically and algebraically.

Lets look at the function y=x2-4:

Lets also calculate or intercepts algebraically. We know that y = 0 when x = 2 or x = -2. So from that we can get two
points on our graph (-2,0) and (2,0). We also know that x = 0 when y = -4. So from that we can get our third point
(0,-4). These are our intercepts on our graph.

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Why Do I Care?
You can actually extract a good bit of meaningful information from graphs. That's why we all love Rene
Descartes. Graphs show visually how one set of data is related to others. One important use for graphs
is the ability to make a logical prediction based on data. Lets say you had spend 6 years in school, and
were just learning about graphs and linear relationships. You could graph the number of math classes
you'd taken against the number of years you’d spent in school. This would give you a pretty straight
linear relationship, and if you graphed it, you could make predictions as to how many math classes you
will have taken after 7,8,9 and 10 years of school. It is a obvious example, but as we will see later, you
can get some complicated sets of data to make accurate predictions with the right graph.

12

10
Years in School

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Number of Math Classes Taken

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