Question 7673: How do you draw a line with a given slope? Ex, -3 as the slope
Answer by drglass(89)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! You can draw a line knowing only the slope, you must also have another piece of information that gives you a starting point. For example, a line is a slope of -3 that crosses (0, 0) is different then the line with slope -3 that crosses (1, 1).
So let's assume our line crosses (0, 0). To draw this line, we have to understand something about the slope. A common description is the slope is the rise over the run, in other words a slope of 1/2 means you move up 1 space and to the right 2 spaces.
Well this is fine when the slope is a positive fraction, but what about a negative whole number? Well, there are two points to keep in mind. First, a whole number is a fraction, for example, the whole number 3 is the fraction 3/1. So, a slope of three means move up three spaces and to the right 1 space. The negative means you can either move down then to the right, or you can move up and to the left. The slope -3 means move down three spaces and one to the right or move up three spaces and one to the left.
So how does this help in drawing the graph. Well, if you start at (0, 0), you you can find a point by moving down 3 and one to the right this will land you at (1, -3), you can do this again to get to (2, -6) and so on. You can also, starting at (0, 0) move up three and to the left one, which brings you to (-1, 3).
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