SOLUTION: I don't understand slope and m x +b and all that... how do you solve it because i have the TAkZ test comiN up on wedsnday! PLz

Algebra ->  Linear-equations -> SOLUTION: I don't understand slope and m x +b and all that... how do you solve it because i have the TAkZ test comiN up on wedsnday! PLz      Log On


   

Question 148143: I don't understand slope and m x +b and all that... how do you solve it because i have the TAkZ test comiN up on wedsnday! PLz
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Do you want graph a linear equation? Let's say that you want to graph y=%281%2F2%29x-3




Looking at y=%281%2F2%29x-3 we can see that the equation is in slope-intercept form y=mx%2Bb where the slope is m=1%2F2 and the y-intercept is b=-3


Since b=-3 this tells us that the y-intercept is .Remember the y-intercept is the point where the graph intersects with the y-axis

So we have one point




Now since the slope is comprised of the "rise" over the "run" this means
slope=rise%2Frun

Also, because the slope is 1%2F2, this means:

rise%2Frun=1%2F2


which shows us that the rise is 1 and the run is 2. This means that to go from point to point, we can go up 1 and over 2



So starting at , go up 1 unit


and to the right 2 units to get to the next point



Now draw a line through these points to graph y=%281%2F2%29x-3

So this is the graph of y=%281%2F2%29x-3 through the points and