What is the equation of the line passing through the points (–2, 2) and (3, –1)?

Question

rachel.frank40 · Answer

First you have to find the slope $$m=(y _{2}-y _{1})/(x _{2}-x _{1})$$
So you will have 
$$\frac{ -1-2 }{ 3-(-2) }=\frac{ -3 }{ 5 }$$
So the slope is $$-\frac{ 3 }{ 5 }$$
Now you have to use the point slope formula $$y-y_{1}=m(x-x _{1})$$
So you use one of the points, it doesn't matter which one, and the slope and plug it in.$$y-2=-\frac{ 3 }{ 5 }(x-(-2))$$
Now depending on what the question asked, you might need to clean it up by distributing.

mathstudent55 · Answer

Here is the point-slope formula in one single equation:

$y - y_1 = \dfrac{y_2 - y_1}{x_2 - x_1} (x - x_1)$