Four regions, decided by two signs
Some spots sit left of the origin, or below it. Their counts get a minus sign.
- Two axes cross at the origin. Four regions form.
- (2, 2): both signs positive. First quadrant.
- (−2, 2): x negative, y positive. Second quadrant.
- (−2, −2): both signs negative. Third quadrant.
- (2, −2): x positive, y negative. Fourth quadrant.
- Points on an axis: no quadrant at all.
Try it first. Look at the two signs. Tap the region.
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The rule
A minus sign marks which side of zero a number sits on. Here it does not mean subtract. Positive means more than zero. Negative means less than zero. The horizontal axis has two directions: right is positive, left is negative. The vertical axis has two directions: up is positive, down is negative.
The two axes cut the page into four quadrants. Each quadrant is named by the two signs of its points.
| Quadrant | x-coordinate | y-coordinate | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | positive | positive | (2, 2) |
| Second | negative | positive | (−2, 2) |
| Third | negative | negative | (−2, −2) |
| Fourth | positive | negative | (2, −2) |
Quadrants are numbered from the top right, anticlockwise (against a clock's hands). A point with a zero coordinate sits on an axis. It is in no quadrant. (0, 3) sits on the vertical axis. (−3, 0) sits on the horizontal axis. (0, 0) is the origin, on both axes at once.