find the equation, in standard form, of the line passing through the points (5,1) and (-2,3)

Question

whpalmer4 · Answer

First thing to do is to find the slope of the line passing through those points, call them $(x_1,y_1)$ and $(x_2,y_2)$.

Slope ($m$) is given by
$$m =\frac{y_2-y_1}{x_2-x_1}$$

What do you get?

anonymous · Answer

2/-7

whpalmer4 · Answer

Okay, that sounds right. Next, take either known point, and use the slope you just found in the point-slope formula:
$$y-y_0 = m(x-x_0)$$That will give you an equation for the line passing through the point $(x_0,y_0)$ with slope $m$.  

Finally, rearrange the resulting equation into standard form, $Ax+By=C$, with $A>0$ and $A, B, C$ relatively prime integers.  In other words, you shouldn't be able to factor out any common factors from the equation.