Abscissa

In mathematics, abscissa (plural abscissae or abscissæ) refers to that element of an ordered pair which is plotted on the horizontal axis of a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, as opposed to the ordinate. It is the first of the two terms (often labelled x and y) which define the location of a point in such a coordinate system.

$(\overbrace{x}^\mathrm{\text{abscissa}}, \overbrace{y}^\mathrm{\text{ordinate}})$

The usage of the word abscissa is first recorded in 1659 by Stefano degli Angeli, a mathematics professor in Rome, according to Moritz Cantor.   Soon thereafter, Leibniz used the term extensively in Latin in his Mathematische Sc

• For the point (-7, 3), -7 is called the abscissa and 3 the ordinate.

See also

• abscissa on Wiktionary
• Function (mathematics)
• Relation (mathematics)

References

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.