The equation \( y = 9(x + 2) \) is a linear equation.
To determine this, you can rewrite it in the standard linear form \( y = mx + b \), where \( m \) is the slope and \( b \) is the y-intercept.
Starting with the original equation:
\[ y = 9(x + 2) \]
Distributing the 9:
\[ y = 9x + 18 \]
This is now in the form \( y = mx + b \), where \( m = 9 \) (the slope) and \( b = 18 \) (the y-intercept).
Since it can be expressed in this linear form, it confirms that the equation represents a linear relationship.