Co-ordinate system

Reference: wikipedia and MathWorld

Coordinate system is a system for specifying points using coordinates measured in some specified way.

In mathematics as applied to geometry, physics or engineering, a coordinate system is a system for assigning a tuple of numbers to each point in an n-dimensional space.

Polar co-ordinate

The simplest coordinate system consists of coordinate axes oriented perpendicularly to each other, known as Cartesian coordinates.

Cartesian coordinates system

Cartesian coordinates are rectilinear two-dimensional or three-dimensional coordinates which are also called rectangular coordinates. The three axes of three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates, conventionally denoted the x-, y-, and z-axes (a notation due to Descartes ) are chosen to be linear and mutually perpendicular.

A point in the plane is located by ordered pairs of numbers. The first number tells us how far the point is from the x-axis. The second numbers tells us how far the point is from the y-axis.

The plane is divided into quadrants. They are labeled as I, II, III, IV in the counterclockwise direction starting at the positive x-axis as below.

Cartesian coordinates system in Flash

Flash Cartesian coordinate system: The y axis is flipped.

Movie-clip Coordinate System

Every individual movie clip also has its own coordinate system. The origin (or position) for movie clips is called "registration point"

Exercise time

A coordinate transformation is a conversion from one system to another, to describe the same space.

Let's convert the current coordinate system to the normal Cartesian coordinate system:

Source: cordinate.fla