Question

standard form??

y=-5x-7 would be 7=-5x+y right? A cant be negative though...

Answer 1

@zepdrix

Answer 2

Correct, A cannot be negative :)
But let's fix a little mistake first.

Answer 3

ok, is it the order of the numbers?

Answer 4

\[\Large\rm y=-5x-7\]To get this into standard form, we'll ADD 5x to each side, yes?

Answer 5

i though you added the 7

Answer 6

crap maybe ive been doing all of my problems wrong

Answer 7

Ok let's try doing that and see what happens.\[\Large\rm y+7=-5x\cancel{-7+7}\]\[\Large\rm y+7=-5x\]

Answer 8

it's fine to do it this way, it just leaves you with an extra step.
See how we now need to move the y to the other side?

Answer 9

yep!

Answer 10

Subtracting y from each side gives us:\[\Large\rm 7=-5x-y\]But as you pointed out, your coefficient on the A is negative here.
So we need to fix that.

Answer 11

do we multiply each side by -1

Answer 12

Just as we can add or subtract a quantity from each side and it stays balanced,
we can also multiply, yes good.

Answer 13

so if we multiplied we would get -7=5x+y or -y?

Answer 14

We're distributing the -1 to each term on the right.
So both the sign on the x and y will change.

Answer 15

So yes, +y.

Answer 16

\[\Large\rm y=-5x-7\]Notice that if we has just moved the 5x instead of moving the 7 and y and multiplying by -1, it would have saved us a few steps :)
\[\Large\rm y+5x=\cancel{5x-5x}-7\]\[\Large\rm y+5x=-7\]

Answer 17

ok, that makes it easier! thanks! I just started algebra 2 today and there are a lot of sophomores and juniors in my class @0@

Answer 18

Are you younger than that? :o

Answer 19

ya im a freshman

Answer 20

Haha that's always fun XD Being the young one in the class.
You'll look like the smarty pants lol

Answer 21

hopefully.... I'll probably look really stupid when we actually get to a new topic

Answer 22

:3

Answer 23

thanks again!