Question

How would you solve these types of problems? They confuse me!

1. Write the quation of the line that passes through points (-8,-6) and (5,3)

2. Write the equation of the line that passes through (3,-4) and has a slope of 2.

I know that you have to do something with y=mx+b, but I don't know what. I also have a graphing calcluator if that helps with anything.

Answer 1

1. The slope of the line will be
m = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) = 9/13
The equation will have the form
y-y1 = m(x-x1)
Use x1, y1, and rewrite this as:
y+6 = (9/13)(x+8)
y = (9/13)x -6/13

The same approach will work for #2

Answer 2

how did you get from
y+6 = (9/13)(x+8)
to
y = (9/13)x -6/13 ?