Question 400211
How do I find the equation of the line with:
1) x-intercept= -3 and y-intercept= 2
2) x-intercept= 5 and y-intercept= 6

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Equations for these lines take the form: y=mx+b, with m as the slope and b, the y-intercept. The problem, then, is to find the slope,m. A graphical solution is one of the ways to find m.

In an x-y coordinate system, mark the x-intercept and y-intercept on their respective axis then draw a line thru both points. You will easily see that the slope m = y-intercept/x-intercept. When moving from left to right, the slope is negative when the line goes down , and positive when the line goes up.

In the first case, the slope is 2/3 and positive. In the second case, the slope is 6/5 and negative.

The two equations are:

y=(2/3)x+2
y=(-6/5)x+6

see these lines on the following graph.

{{{ graph( 300, 200, -10, 10, -10, 10, (2/3)x+2,(-6/5)x+6) }}}

I'm sure there are other ways to do this problem, but I like this graphical solution.