A coordinate system is a system which uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of a point or other geometric element. Do not use this tag for questions regarding longitude and latitude. Please use [geospatial] instead.
Do not use this tag for questions regarding longitude and latitude. Please use geospatial instead.
Summary
A coordinate system is a system which uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of a point or other geometric element. This is done by assigning an n-tuple of numbers or scalars to each point in an n-dimensional space.
For example, the Cartesian coordinate system uses a 2-tuple system of (x,y) coordinates to specify locations on a 2 dimensional plane.
Common Coordinate Systems
- Polar - 2 dimensional system using a distance and angle.
- Cartesian - n dimensional system. Most commonly used versions are the 2 dimensional (x,y) and 3 dimensional (x,y,z) versions.
Atlas Grid - 2 dimensional system that uses alpha characters to denote one direction, and numbers to denote the other. For example:
A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 C1 C2 C3
Click here for a more complete list of coordinate systems.
