What is the equation of the line that passes through the points (-3, 2) and (-5, 8)?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Find the slope first..

anonymous · Answer

$$Slope = \frac{y_2 - y_1}{x_2 - x_1}$$

anonymous · Answer

To write the equation of a line you need one of the following two:

a slope and a point (Which is ideal.  it requires the least amount of work)
or
two points.

here we have two points.  Between any two points we can find the slope by using

$$m = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1)$$
where m is the slope between the points (x1,y1) and (x2,y2).  so in this case

$$m = (8-2)/((-5) - (-3))$$
$$m = 6/-2$$
$$m=-3$$

now with the slope of -3 and a choice of either point (-3, 2) and (-5, 8) we can write the equation of the line.  Here I'll pick to use (-3,2)

$$y - y1 = m(x-x1)$$
$$y - 2 = -3(x- (-3))$$
$$y - 2 = -3x - 9$$
$$y = -3x -7$$

anonymous · Answer

So would the equation be 3x + y = - 7?

anonymous · Answer

Yes, that's one form of the equation. Alex left it as the slope intercept form.

anonymous · Answer

Ok thank you