SOLUTION: Hello I need to solve this and I havent done math for 5 years.could you please help me what is the equation of th eline that contains the points with ( x, y ) coordinates ( -3,

Question 163972: Hello I need to solve this and I havent done math for 5 years.could you please help me
what is the equation of th eline that contains the points with ( x, y ) coordinates ( -3, 7 ) and (5,-1)
thanks
tha answer is y= -x + 4 can you explain why>?
Found 2 solutions by jim_thompson5910, nerdybill:
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

First let's find the slope of the line through the points and

Start with the slope formula.

Plug in , , , and

Subtract from to get

Subtract from to get

Reduce

So the slope of the line that goes through the points and is

Now let's use the point slope formula:

Start with the point slope formula

Plug in , , and

Rewrite as

Distribute

Multiply

Add 7 to both sides.

Combine like terms.

Simplify

So the equation that goes through the points and is

Notice how the graph of goes through the points and . So this visually verifies our answer.
Graph of through the points and

Answer by nerdybill(7384) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If you are given two points, you can determine the slope from:
m = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1)
Our two points:( -3, 7 ) and (5,-1)
substituting it in, we get:
m = (-1-7)/(5-(-3))
m = (-8)/(5+3)
m = (-8)/(8)
m = -1
.
Now that we know the slope (-1), we can use one of the two given points (say we use ( -3, 7 )) and plug it into the "point-slope" form of a line:
y � y1 = m(x � x1)
y � 7 = -1(x � (-3))
y � 7 = -1(x + 3)
y � 7 = -x - 3
y = -x + 4 (this is our equation of the line)

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