Students are plotting points on a coordinate plane. Rudy plots the point (-6, 3) in the second quadrant. Frank plots the same point in the third quadrant. Who plotted the point correctly?

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TheoryPractice · Accepted Answer

Rudy. When writing coordinate pairs, we always write the x- coordinate first, then the y- coordinate. (x, y) Quadrants on a graph are numbered counter-clockwise as shown here:

Retrieved from: https://openstax.org/books/prealgebra-2e/pages/11-1-use-the-rectangular-coordinate-system The point (x, y) falls in the first quadrant, where both the points are positive. In the second quadrant, the x- coordinate is negative and the y- coordinate is positive ( (-x,y) ). In the third quadrant, the x- coordinate is negative and the y- coordinate is also negative ( (-x,-y) ). In the fourth quadrant, the x- coordinate is positive and the y- coordinate is negative ( (x,-y) ). The point (-6,3) is in the second quadrant since the x- coordinate is negative and the y- coordinate is positive. Thus, Rudy plotted the point correctly.

Students are plotting points on a coordinate plane. Rudy plots the point <tex> (-6, 3) </tex> in the second quadrant. Frank plots the same point in the third quadrant. Who plotted the point correctly?

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