BY: RONICA NORVELL

 Identify the x and y axis.  Identify the origin on your graph.  Identify x and y coordinates of a point.  Lastly plot points on your graph.

A graph is a visual representation of a relationship between two variables, x and y. The point where the two axes intersect is called the origin. The origin is also identified as the point (0, 0).

X AND Y AXIS The Y-Axis goes up and down. Positive numbers go up or right (depending on the axis). Negative numbers go left or down.

MORE INFO A graph consists of two axes called the x (horizontal) and y (vertical) axes. These axes correspond to the variables we are relating. In economics we will usually give the axes different names, such as Price and Quantity.

GRAPH EXAMPLE

GRAPHING EQUATIONS When you need to graph an equation such as y = -(1/2)x + 2, the only thing you need to be especially wary of is the fraction. Since a line consists of two or more points, all you need to do is find two or more ordered pairs that solve the equation. The easiest way to do this is to draw a table such as the following and fill it in: x | y | 2 | 4 | You plug the x-values into the equation and find the y-values. That gives you ordered pairs that you can graph on the coordinate plane and then "connect" into a line.

PLOTTING POINTS

COORDINATE PLANES This is a coordinate plane. It has two axes and four quadrants. The two number lines form the axes. The horizontal number line is called the x-axis and the vertical number line is called the y-axis.

MORE…  The center of the coordinate plane is called the origin. It has the coordinates of (0,0). Locations of points on the plane can be plotted when one coordinate from each of the axes are used. This set of x and y values are called ordered pairs.