1. What is the name of the horizontal number line in the Cartesian plane?
- Ax-axis
- By-axis
- COrigin
- DQuadrant
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Answer: A) x-axis
The horizontal line is called the x-axis; the vertical line is the y-axis.
Class 9 The Cartesian Plane — practice questions with answers
Coordinate Geometry · 5 sample questions from the school syllabus. Try each one, then open the answer and the worked solution.
2. What is the abscissa of the point (-9, 4)?
- A-10
- B-18
- C-8
- D-9
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Answer: D) -9
The abscissa is the x-coordinate, which is -9.
3. The point on the plane shown lies in which quadrant?
- AThird
- BFirst
- CSecond
- DFourth
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Answer: A) Third
The marked point is to the left and below the origin, so x and y are both negative — the third quadrant.
4. A point P(a, b) lies in the second quadrant.
What can you say about the signs of a and b?
What can you say about the signs of a and b?
- Aa < 0 and b > 0
- Ba > 0 and b > 0
- Ca < 0 and b < 0
- Da > 0 and b < 0
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Answer: A) a < 0 and b > 0
In the second quadrant the abscissa is negative and the ordinate is positive: a < 0, b > 0.
5. Consider all points (x, y) where x and y are each chosen from {-1, 0, 1}.
How many of these points lie strictly inside a quadrant (i.e. not on either axis)?
How many of these points lie strictly inside a quadrant (i.e. not on either axis)?
- A3
- B4
- C5
- D8
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Answer: B) 4
A point lies in a quadrant only when neither coordinate is 0. So x is from {-1, 1} (2 choices) and y is from {-1, 1} (2 choices), giving 2 x 2 = 4 points: (1,1), (1,-1), (-1,1), (-1,-1).
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