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Find the Equation of a Line: example 4.60 · Physics Playground

Exercises Graphs and straight lines

Example 4.60 from Elementary Algebra, 4.6 Find the Equation of a Line

Find the Equation of a Line: example 4.60

Find an equation of a line with slope $m = - \frac{1}{3}$ that contains the point $(6, −4)$ . Write the equation in slope–intercept form.

Work it out on paper first. Then open the solution one step at a time, and stop as soon as you can finish on your own.

Solution
Since we are given a point and the slope of the line, we can substitute the needed values into the point–slope form, $y - y_{1} = m (x - x_{1})$ .

Identify the slope.

Identify the point.

Substitute the values into $y - y_{1} = m (x - x_{1}) .$

Simplify.

Write in slope–intercept form.

Your turn

The book's Try It right after this example: same idea, new numbers. Only the answer is given.

Find an equation of a line with slope $m = - \frac{2}{5}$ and containing the point $(10, −5)$ .

How did it go?

PreviousFind the Equation of a Line: example 4.59 Next Find the Equation of a Line: example 4.61

From Elementary Algebra (1st edition) by OpenStax (Rice University), section 4.6, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Original at openstax.org. We split the solution into steps; the words, numbers and figures are the book's. OpenStax doesn't endorse this site.

Identify the slope.
Identify the point.
Substitute the values into $y - y_{1} = m (x - x_{1}) .$

Simplify.
Write in slope–intercept form.

Solution

Your turn