3D axes with projection='3d' in Matplotlib - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Plotting 3D Points with Matplotlib

📖 Scenario: You are working on a simple data visualization project. You want to show points in three dimensions to better understand their spatial relationships.

🎯 Goal: Create a 3D scatter plot using Matplotlib's projection='3d' feature to visualize points in 3D space.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create three lists named x, y, and z with exact values

Create a Matplotlib figure and add 3D axes using projection='3d'

Plot the points using a scatter plot on the 3D axes

Display the plot

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

3D plots help scientists and engineers visualize data with three variables, like position in space or measurements over time.

💼 Career

Data scientists and analysts use 3D plotting to explore complex datasets and communicate insights clearly.

1

Create the 3D data points

Create three lists called x, y, and z with these exact values:
x = [1, 2, 3], y = [4, 5, 6], z = [7, 8, 9]

Matplotlib

# Create lists x, y, and z with the given values
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to create lists. For example, x = [1, 2, 3].

2

Set up the 3D plot axes

Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. Then create a figure called fig using plt.figure(). Add 3D axes to fig by creating a variable called ax with fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d').

Matplotlib

x = [1, 2, 3]
y = [4, 5, 6]
z = [7, 8, 9]

# Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Create a figure called fig
# Add 3D axes to fig and assign to ax
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use import matplotlib.pyplot as plt to import. Then fig = plt.figure() creates the figure. Use fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d') to add 3D axes.

3

Plot the 3D points

Use the scatter method of ax to plot the points with x, y, and z as coordinates.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = [1, 2, 3]
y = [4, 5, 6]
z = [7, 8, 9]

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')

# Plot the points using ax.scatter
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use ax.scatter(x, y, z) to plot the points in 3D.

4

Show the 3D plot

Use plt.show() to display the 3D scatter plot.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = [1, 2, 3]
y = [4, 5, 6]
z = [7, 8, 9]

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')

ax.scatter(x, y, z)

# Display the plot
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Call plt.show() to open the plot window.