Expert: Richard J. Raridon - 6/13/2006

Question
im in algebra 1 and my teacher does not teach us this material and im getting very frustrated heres some of the problems im dealing with that nobody understands.


how do you simplify this problem:
3(x+2)-5xsquared+(4x)squared+x(x+2)

and what are some of the formulas for graphing and finding intersepts and slopes and fiding distances between a and b stuff  

Answer
first of all, multiply out the terms
3x+6 -5x^2 +16x^2 +x^2 +2x = 12x^2 +5x +6
to graph any equation just put in a value for x, calculate y, and plot (x,y)
to find the intercept and slope for a straight line, just re-write it in standard form y = mx+b and then the slope is m and the y-intercept is b.  
if you have two points, (x1,y1) and (x2,y2), the distance between them is [(x1-x2)^2 +(y1-y2)^2]^1/2, finding the hypotenuse of a triangle.