Lightbulb went off on X-Y-Z axis

 I came to Anchorage to attend and present at the Alaska State Technology in Education conference.  I love going because I always learn something new every time I attend.

The first day of the conference, they offered several three hour workshops so I chose the one on 3 D printing.  The speaker took us from start to finish including the fact they us a 3 dimensional axis for printing.

The speaker explained the x axis as going left and right, the y axis is front and back, while the z axis is the height.  I've never had this grid explained this way and it made so much sense. Much more than theoretical drawn grids.  In addition, since three dimensional grids are extremely difficult to visualize or draw, this explanation puts a context on it and when drawing on an app or graphing website, it makes it easier for them to construct the graph.

It also makes it easier to create three dimensional shapes on autocad or similar software because they know where to place the base or height.  I can see the pyramid in my mind as I draw it since I got that application and his explanation gave me what I needed to "see" the process.

  It also throws a different perspective on the regular x and y axis. We teach it as horizontal and vertical but it seems to the the left and right for x is still the same but why not express the y as front and back so it can be explained in terms of maps.

I don't know if they still have those books filled with maps for cities.  The ones with the numbers and letters to tell you what area the street is in but it operates on a flat x and y grid except one is numbers and one is letters.  I'm also thinking of the maps found in the middle of telephone books.

I've often explained the coordinate system using directions such as north, south, east, and west because that is something my students relate to.  My example puts the hotel at (0,0) and the coordinates give directions to the local McDonalds, or the store, or where ever because they need a way of understanding the coordinates are a location.

I realize there are situations where we want the x and y axis to run horizontally and vertically depending on the situation or context. Now I can communicate these contexts to my students and perhaps widen their knowledge base.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.