3D Space Interactive Applet

It's often hard to see what's going on in a 2-dimensional static image of a 3-dimensional graph.

You can explore the concepts of 3D cartesian coordinates using the applet below.

The initial position of the point P shown in the 3D graph is (2, 3, 5), which is the same as the introductory 3D example on the previous page, The 3-dimensional Co-ordinate System.

I've used the following convention for the placement of the axes - the x-axis goes off to the left and slightly towards us, the y-axis goes out to the right and towards us, and the z-axis is up. These follow the right hand rule mentioned in the previous page.

The applet

Things to do

You can:

• Drag the curve left-right and up-down to see the axes and point P from different angles
• Change each of the x-, y-, and z-values of the point P by using the sliders around the 3D graph.
• Zoom in and out using the mouse wheel (or 2-finger pinching, if on a mobile device)
• Pan the whole graph left and right using the right mouse button and dragging (or 3-finger swipe on a mobile device)

Return to:

« The 3-dimensional Co-ordinate System