
6 
Mathematics 
rectangular parallelpiped 
is  a right rectangular  prism. A cube is  a  rectangular 
parallelpiped  all  of  whose  edges are congruent. A 
triangular pyramid 
has a 
triangular base,  etc. A 
circular cylinder 
is  a prism whose base is  a circle  and a 
circular cone 
is a pyramid  whose base is  a circle. 
Coordinate Systems 
Each point on a plane may be defined by  a pair 
of 
numbers. The coordinate 
system 
is 
represented by  a line 
X 
in  the plane (the 
x-axis) 
and by  a line 
Y 
(the 
y-axis) 
perpendicular to line 
X 
in the plane, constructed 
so 
that their intersection, 
the 
origin, 
is  denoted by  zero. Any point P on the plane can now be described 
by  its  two  coordinates which  form an ordered pair, 
so 
that  P(x,,y,) is  a point 
whose  location corresponds  to  the real  numbers  x and 
y 
on the x-axis and 
the y-axis. 
If  the coordinate system  is  extended  into  space, a  third  axis,  the z-axis, 
perpendicular to the plane of  the xI and 
y, 
axes,  is  needed  to  represent  the 
third dimension coordinate defining a point P(x,,y,,z,). The z-axis intersects the 
x and 
y 
axes at their origin, zero. More  than three dimensions are frequently 
dealt with  mathematically, but are difficult 
to 
visualize. 
The 
slope 
m of a line segment in a plane with end points P,(x,,y,) and P,(x,,y,) 
is determined by  the ratio of  the change in the vertical 
(y) 
coordinates to the 
change in  the horizontal (x) coordinates or 
m 
= 
(Y' 
- 
YI)/(X2 
- 
XI) 
except that a vertical line segment (the change in x coordinates equal to zero) 
has  no slope, i.e.,  m is  undefined. A horizontal segment has  a slope 
of 
zero. 
Two 
lines  with  the same slope are parallel and two  lines whose slopes  are 
negative reciprocals are perpendicular to each other. 
Since the distance between two points P,(x,,y,) and P,(x,,y,)  is  the hypotenuse 
of  a right triangle, the length of  the line segment PIP, is equal to 
Graphs 
A 
graph 
is a figure, i.e., a set of  points, lying in  a coordinate system and a 
graph of a condition (such as 
x 
= 
y 
+ 
2) 
is the set of all points that satisfy the 
condition. The graph of the 
slope-intercept equation, 
y 
= 
mx 
+ 
b, 
is the line which 
passes  through the point (O,b), where b is  the y-intercept (x 
= 
0) 
and m is the 
slope. The graph of  the equation 
(x 
- 
a)' 
+ 
(y 
- 
b)' 
= 
r2 
is a circle with  center (a,b) and radius r. 
Vectors 
A 
vector 
is described 
on 
a coordinate plane by  a 
directed segment 
from its initial 
point to its terminal point. The directed segment represents the fact that every 
vector determines not only a magnitude, but also a direction. A vector 
v 
is  not