You can
put this solution on YOUR website!It depends upon the form in which the equation of the lines are given.
If the equation is in the form of y=mx+b, then the easiest way to graph the line is using the slope and y intercept. For details see my Lesson Plan called "Graphing by Slope-Intercept Method" in Graphs.
When the equation of the line is in the form y=mx+b, then the coefficient of x is always the slope, which can be written as a fraction as RISE over RUN.
For example,
means that the slope is
. This means that the RISE is UP 3, and the RUN is right 1 unit. Start by graphing the y intercept which is DOWN 2 units on the y-axis. Then with your pencil on that point at (0,-2), move UP 3, then from there go RIGHT 1, and put a point. Then connect the two points that you just plotted with a straight line. That's it!!
For a line with a positive slope, it always goes UPHILL, but if it has a negative slope, then it goes DOWNHILL (it leans to the left!). See lesson plan for more details.
If the equation is in the form of an x-term plus (or minus)a y term--this iw what we call standard form--that is Ax + By = C, then it's usually easiest to find the x intercept and y intercept and connect these two points. For detailed explanation of this, see my other Lesson Plan "Graphing Equations in Standard Form by Two-Intercept Method in Graphs."
To see a comparison of the two methods listed above, see "Graphing Equations in Standard Form by Two-Intercept Method in Graphs. "
R^2 at SCC
