Chapter 9 Coordinate geometry

"This is some kind of a plot, right?" Slothrop sucking saliva from velvet pile. "Everything is some kind of a plot, man," Bodine laughing. "And yes but, the arrows are pointing all different ways"

— Thomas Pynchon, gravity’s rainbow. Usually somewhere near p. 600 (depending on edition).

I make no secret of the fact that I think geometry should be wrapped up, and placed in a compost heap. From there it might helpfully decompose and from the limited nutrients of its remains give birth to something better.

Unfortunately, today is not the day. In any 2D coordinate system, we may reference any point in that 2D space through two values. Usually, these are referred to as $x$ and $y$.