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Reflecting points in the coordinate plane

Just like looking at a mirror image of yourself, but flipped....a reflection point is the mirror point on the opposite side of the axis. Watch this tutorial and reflect :). Created by Sal Khan.

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Video transcript

The point negative 8 comma, 5 is reflected across the y-axis. Plot negative 8 comma 5 and its reflection across the y-axis. So first let's plot negative 8 comma 5. So its x-coordinate is negative 8, so I'll just use this one right over here. So the x-coordinate is negative 8, and the y-coordinate is 5, so I'll go up 5. So the y-coordinate is 5 right over here. You see negative 8 and 5. We've gone 8 to the left because it's negative, and then we've gone 5 up, because it's a positive 5. So we've plotted negative 8 comma 5. Now we have to plot its reflection across the y-axis. And so you can imagine if this was some type of lake or something and you were to see its reflection, and this is, say, like the moon, you would see its reflection roughly around here. You would see an equal distance away from the y-axis. So you would see it at 8 to the right of the y-axis, which would be at positive 8, and still 5 above the x-axis. So that's its reflection right over here. It's reflection is the point 8 comma 5. Let's do a couple more of these. The point negative 6 comma negative 7 is reflec-- this should say "reflected" across the x-axis. Plot negative 6 comma negative 7 and its reflection across the x-axis. So negative 6 comma negative 7, so we're going to go 6 to the left of the origin, and we're going to go down 7. So there we go. Negative 6 comma negative 7 is right there. And we are reflecting across the x-axis. So, once again, if you imagine that this is some type of a lake, or maybe some type of an upside-down lake, or a mirror, where would we think we see its reflection? Well, its reflection would be the same distance. We're reflecting across the x-axis, so it would be the same distance, but now above the x-axis. So this was 7 below. Now we're going to go 7 above the x-axis, and it's going to be at the same x-coordinate. So there you have it right over here. We reflected this point to right up here, because we reflected across the x-axis. Let's check our answer. Let's do one more. The point B is a reflection of point A across which axis? So let's think about this right over here. This is at the point negative 6 comma 5. This is at the point negative 5 comma 6. Let's see. It doesn't look like it's only one axis. If I were to reflect this point across the y-axis, it would go all the way to positive 6, 5. So it would go all the way right over here. So if I reflect A just across the y-axis, it would go there. And then if I reflected that point across the x-axis, then I would end up at 5 below the x-axis at an x-coordinate of 6. So to go from A to B, you could reflect across the y and then the x, or you could reflect across the x, and it would get you right over here. It would get you to negative 6 comma 5, and then reflect across the y. So it's really reflecting across both axes. So we would reflect across the x-axis and then the y-axis. It would have also been legitimate if we said the y-axis and then the x-axis. Let's check our answer. We got it right.