On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:04:10 +0100, Arnaud Delobelle wrote: > Steven D'Aprano <st...@remove-this-cybersource.com.au> writes: > >> On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:37:36 +0200, Jean-Michel Pichavant wrote: > >> By the way: >> >>> xCoordinate, yCoordinate, zCoordinate = polygon.nextPointCoordinates() >> >> Coordinates are pairs or triples of *ordinates* (no "co"). You can't >> have an "x coordinate" -- that would be like unpacking a single pair of >> shoes into a "left-pair" and a "right-pair". > > Wrong, the ordinate is specifically the second coordinate (the first one > being the abscissa). I don't think these words are in common use in the > english speaking world though
I'm pretty sure they never used the term abscissa when I was at university, and the word sounds very old fashioned to my ears... like something Newton would have said. But I see that both Mathworld and Wikipedia agree with you, as does my copy of Collins Dictionary of Mathematics, so I stand corrected. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
