Expert: Josh - 1/7/2009

Question
Hi! Im still hoping you get on this haha..
It tells me.. " Use point-slope form to write an ewuation of a line that passes through the point (1,-2) with slope.
they give me the slope.. but i dont understand what to do!
Pleaseeee help!  

Answer
Hi Chelsea,

I can give you a simple answer, but I would much rather that you learn how to do this yourself for your own good. Please look up "linear equation" on wikipedia. You should find an excellent entry describing "point-slope form".

In a nutshell, given a point with coordinates (xo,yo) and a slope m, the equation is given by y-yo=m(x-xo). In your question, the known values are xo=1 and yo=-2.

Recommended Reading:
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The Wikipedia tutorial article that I referred to earlier [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_equation] teaches you the basics.

Additional Resources:
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You can also have a look at some of the videos on youtube. I haven't seen any of them, so I cannot comment on how helpful they are. But you can check these out yourself:

Video on Point Slope Form (Algebra) on YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQhb84bZDzw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Cxbefjf34