Expert: Richard J. Raridon - 6/15/2006

Question
Here's two problems I'm having difficulty with for some reason.  Please help!

Thanks so much!




Given points (1,3) and (-1,2), find an equation for the line passing through these points.  Give in general form or slope-intercept form.

find the slope and y-intercept and graph it --   x + 2y = 4  

Answer
The general form is y=mx+b so you have 3=m+b and 2=-m+b
so your equation is y = (1/2)x+5/2 or 2y = x+5
re-write it as y = (-1/2)x +2 so the slope =-1/2 and the
y-intercept = 2
It only takes two points to draw a straight line so just put in 2 values for x, calculate y, and plot the points.  
One point is obviously (0,2)