Now that you are a champion “grapher,” let’s learn about a new interactive tool that will allow you to easily graph polygons.

Click on the link below to access the interactive coordinate grid from Math Is Fun.

This activity might not be viewable on your mobile device. Interactive exercise. Assistance may be required.Cartesian Coordinate Activity

To become acquainted with this interactive tool do the following activity.

  1. Create a line segment by dragging point A to (-8, -5), then dragging point B to (4, -1).
  2. Drag and place points C, D, and E at other points on the same line as A and B, with whole number coordinates.
  3. Check your coordinates.
    4. Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

    Check Your Answer

    (-5,-4), (-2,-3), (1,-2) Close Pop Up
  4. Turn "on" the quadrant markers by clicking on the "Quadrants" box on the left.
  5. Create a quadrilateral that has one vertex in each of the four quadrants. Note: you will always place a point on top of your starting point to complete the polygon.

    6. What do you notice about the coordinate values in each of the four quadrants?

    Quadrant I

    Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

    Check Your Answer

    x and y are both positive
    Close Pop Up

    Quadrant II

    Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

    Check Your Answer

    x is negative and y is positive
    Close Pop Up

    Quadrant III

    Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

    Check Your Answer

    x and y are both negative
    Close Pop Up

    Quadrant IV

    Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

    Check Your Answer

    x is positive and y is negative
    Close Pop Up

    Click here to check out this Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Sample Polygon.


    Close Pop Up
  6. Create a triangle that has a vertex on the y-axis and two vertices on the x-axis. What do you notice about the coordinate values the vertices of the triangle?

    7. Vertices on the x-axis

    Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

    Check Your Answer

    y = 0
    Close Pop Up

    Vertex on the y-axis

    Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

    Check Your Answer

    x = 0
    Close Pop Up

    Click here to check out this Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Sample Polygon.

    Close Pop Up
  7. Create a pentagon that has a vertex on the y-axis, two vertices on the x-axis, with the remaining two vertices in different quadrants.

    8. Click here to check out this Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Sample Polygon.

    Close Pop Up