The Cartesian Coordinate System was invented by Rene Descartes back on the 17th century. It uses a pair of perpendicular axis to measure the distance from the origin (where the axis meet) to an specific point on the plane.
It's the basis for the analytic geometry and also provides an excellent interpretation of many of the other disciplines of math via the graph of a function. It's also the most used system in astronomy, physics and engineering.
