\documentclass{article} \usepackage{tikz} \usepackage{verbatim} \begin{comment} :Title: Intersecting lines :Tags: Axes, Basics, Coordinate systems An example of using the intersection coordinate systems. Both the ``intersection`` and ``perpendicular`` coordinate system are used. The latter is a special case of the former, but has the shorter and more convenient ``-|`` and ``|-`` syntax. \end{comment} \begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1.5] % Draw axes \draw [<->,thick] (0,2) node (yaxis) [above] {$y$} |- (3,0) node (xaxis) [right] {$x$}; % Draw two intersecting lines \draw (0,0) coordinate (a_1) -- (2,1.8) coordinate (a_2); \draw (0,1.5) coordinate (b_1) -- (2.5,0) coordinate (b_2); % Calculate the intersection of the lines a_1 -- a_2 and b_1 -- b_2 % and store the coordinate in c. \coordinate (c) at (intersection of a_1--a_2 and b_1--b_2); % Draw lines indicating intersection with y and x axis. Here we use % the perpendicular coordinate system \draw[dashed] (yaxis |- c) node[left] {$y'$} -| (xaxis -| c) node[below] {$x'$}; % Draw a dot to indicate intersection point \fill[red] (c) circle (2pt); \end{tikzpicture} \end{document}