Question

I have two questions:

If I have a table such as:

Elevation Temperature
in 1000 of ft in degrees Fahrenheit

4 73
5 69.5
6 60


So I have found the slope to be -3.5 and the y-intercept to be (0,87)

The equation of my line is y = -3.5x + 87

1) Is the left column of the table always the x axis and the right column of the table always the y axis?
2) I'm not sure how to complete this question:
Restate your equation in the form of a sentence: "If x represents..., then y = ... represents..."

So I said If x represents the elevation in thousands of feet, then y = -3.5 x + 87 equals .....I'm not sure what to put here -- the elevation at 0 ft?

Thank you.

Answer 1

the x-axis is usually (traditionally) the independent variable, and the y-axis is the dependent variable

in this case, the temperature DEPENDS on the elevation

Answer 2

Thank you, Scott, but the question was asking what y = represented?