Cartesian Coordinate System

The Cartesian coordinate system was developed by the mathematician Descartes during an illness.
As he lay in bed sick, he saw a fly buzzing around on the ceiling, which was made of square tiles.
As he watched he realized that he could describe the position of the fly by the ceiling tile he was on.
After this experience he developed the coordinate plane to make it easier to describe the position of objects.

Using Cartesian Coordinates you mark a point by how far along and how far up it is.