Orienting Yourself: The Use of Coordinates

Chapter at a glance

How to fix the position of a point in a plane with two perpendicular axes, and how to find the distance between two points using the Baudhāyana–Pythagoras theorem.

What this chapter covers

• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Settling In
• 1.3 The 2-D Cartesian Coordinate System
• 1.4 Distance Between Two Points in the 2-D Plane

Key points

• The Cartesian (coordinate, xy-) plane has a horizontal x-axis and a vertical y-axis meeting at the origin (0, 0).
• The axes divide the plane into four quadrants with signs (+, +), (−, +), (−, −) and (+, −).
• A point on the x-axis is (x, 0); a point on the y-axis is (0, y). (x, y) ≠ (y, x) unless x = y.
• Distance between (x₁, y) and (x₂, y) is |x₂ − x₁|; between (x, y₁) and (x, y₂) it is |y₂ − y₁|.
• Distance formula: √[(x₂ − x₁)² + (y₂ − y₁)²].

Read the NCERT chapter

Read this chapter in the official NCERT textbook Ganita Manjari (2026-27 edition) for free on ncert.nic.in.

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