Question

What is the equation of the line, in slope-intercept form, that passes through (3, -1) and (-1, 5)?

Answer 1

y = -3/2x + 7/2

Answer 2

Sorry, how does that help romanticydal with finding out how to get that answer and then do similar problems?

Answer 3

A line passing through two points can be represented in the slope-intercept form as y = mx + b. Where m is the slope and b is the y intercept.

But, first we need to find the slope. Slope = difference in y coordinates of the two given points / difference in x coordinates of the two given points.

In this case, slope = (-1-5)/(3-(-1)) = -6/4 = -3/2.

So, the equation is y = -3x/2 + b.

To find b, we should use one of the points on the line (any one of the two really) and plug values for y and x. Let us pick the point (3, -1).

We get:
-1 = -3(3)/2 + b
-1 = -9/2 + b
=> b = 9/2 - 1 = 7/2

So, the equation is:
y = -3x/2 + 7/2