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coordinate system

System for determining the position of a point

Instance of: mathematical concept
Subclass of: frame of reference
Part of: frame of reference

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine and standardize the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The coordinates are not interchangeable; they are commonly distinguished by their position in an ordered tuple, or by a label, such as in "the x-coordinate". The coordinates are taken to be real numbers in elementary mathematics, but may be complex numbers or elements of a more abstract system such as a commutative ring. The use of a coordinate system allows problems in geometry to be translated into problems about numbers and vice versa; this is the basis of analytic geometry.

Overview

All data

44 statements · 18% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Has characteristic: coordinate axis
coordinate origin
Different from: coordinate
method of coordinates
Has part(s) of the class: coordinate
Members / parts: coordinate frame
coordinate surface
coordinate curve

On other databases

32 identifiers linking coordinate system across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

18%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 12, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). coordinate system (Q11210). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/coordinate-system-Q11210