The Linear Function f(x) = mx + b and Slope The linear function f(x) = mx + b defines a line in a 2D coordinate system with

slope m and yintercept b. Linear Function Graph An example of two linear functions, y = -x + 5 and y = 0.5x+2. Both functions graph as straight lines, but their y-intercepts and slopes are determined through their functional terms. The positive (red) and negative (blue) slope terms change the orientation of the lines relative to each other. KEY POINTS A linear function is an algebraic equation in which each term is either a constant or the product of a constant and (the first power of) a single variable. The typical linear function in slope-intercept form is y = mx+b where m and b are constants. The y-intercept, b, is the y-coordinate of the location where the line crosses the y-axis, which can be found by setting x to 0.

The slope, m, is the change in the vertical distance of a line on a coordinate plane over the change in horizontal distance. The slope of the line is.

TERMS variable A symbol that represents a quantity in a mathematical expression, as used in many sciences Linear Functions What is a Linear Function? A linear function is an algebraic equation in which each term is either a constant or the product of a constant and (the first power of) a single variable. Linear equations can have one or more variables. Linear equations occur with great regularity in applied mathematics. A common form of a linear function in the independent variable x and thedependent variable y is where m and b are constants. The origin of the name "linear" comes from the fact that the set of solutions of such an equation forms a straight line in the plane. In this particular equation, the constant m determines the slope or gradient of that line, and the constant term b determines the point at which the line crosses the y-axis, otherwise known as the y-intercept. (Figure 1) shows a graph of a couple of linear functions. The y-intercept and the Slope The y-intercept, which is b in the standard form, is the y-coordinate of the location where the line crosses the y-axis. This can be seen by letting x = 0, which immediately gives y = b. It may be helpful to think about this in terms of y = b + mx; where the line passes through the point (0, b) and extends to the left and right at a slope of m. Vertical lines having undefined slope, cannot be represented by this form. Vertical lines have the form x = c for some constant c. It's also possible to find the x-intercept of the function, the x-coordinate where the line crosses the xaxis, but it isn't immediately clear from the intercept-slope form. To find the x-intercept, simple solve for x to get and so you can see that by letting y = 0, the x-intercept is therefore . The slope, m, is the change in the vertical distance of a line on a coordinate plane over the change in horizontal distance. In other words, it is the rise over the run or the steepness of a line. Lines that have the same slope are parallel lines, and these lines will never touch or cross. Slope is computed by measuring the change in vertical distance divided by the change in horizontal difference, in order to compute this you'll need two points on the line, say (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), such that x2 > x1. From these

two points, and the knowledge that the slope is the change in the vertical distance over the change in the horizontal distance, it's easy to see the slope . Finding the Intercept and Slope The linear function won't always be in slope-intercept form, or sometimes you'll need to find the function from a pair of points. If you have a function that is not in the slope-intercept form, to get it into that form, simply solve for y. For example, if you have the function solve for y by first multiplying both sides by 6 to get , add 15 to both sides for , and finally divide both sides by 3 to put it into slopeintercept form , which tells us the y-intercept is 5, and the slope is 4. Another possibility is that you are simply given two points, say (1, 3) and (4, 0). First find the slope from the slope equation . Now that we know the slope, choose one of the two points and plug it into the slope-intercept form. Let's choose (1, 3), plug this in to get , and solve for b to get b = 4. Therefore the slope-intercept form for the general function is .

Linear Functions
Linear functions are functions defined by an equation of the form f(x) = mx + b. They are one of the simplest forms of functions and have been well-studied. Because of their simplicity, they are often used as approximations to more complicated functions. The construction of these approximations, however, relies on techniques from calculus, which is beyond our current scope. To compute the equation of a line, all that is needed are two points on that line. All of the formulas that will be provided come from this very fact.

The equation of a line given two points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) Given two points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), the equation of the line that passes through those points is y = mx + b, where

and

Another common formula is the point-slope formula. That is, if one already knows the slope of the line and a point (x1, y1) on the line, then one can compute the equation of the line as follows:

The equation of a line given the slope and a point (x1, y1) Given the slope m and the point (x1, y1), the equation of the line that passes through (x1, y1) with slope m is given y = y1 + m(x x1)

If we multiply through by m in the above equation, then our point-slope formula becomes y = mx + y1 mx1. Letting b = y1 mx1, we have the same equation as above. When considering the graph of a linear function, often times it is helpful to plot the x- and yintercepts. The x-intercept of the graph is where the y-value is zero. On a linear function, that is the point (-b/m, 0). The y-intercept of the graph is occurs where the x-value is zero. On a linear function, that is the point (0, b). Example 1: Suppose that f(x) is a linear function. If f(1) = 1 and f(3) = 5, find the equation for f(x). Solution:

The points (1, 1) and (3, 5) on the line. Thus, So, the equation of our line is y = 2x 1. Example 2:

and b = 1

2(1) = -1.

Suppose f(x) is a linear function that has an x-intercept of 3 and a slope of 2. Find f(x). Solution: Since we know the x-intercept, we know the point (3, 0) is on the line. We can use the point-slope formula to conclude that f(x) = 0 + 2(x 3) = 2x 6. One common use for linear function is the construction of a model. A model is a diagram, a graph, an equation, a verbal expression, or some other form of communication. Our interest will be with equations. We can construct models with linear functions as follows: f(x) = (constant rate of change)x + (initial amount) (Note: the constant rate of change is the slope and the initial amount is the y-intercept) Example 3: Write the formula for a linear function that models each situation. Choose both an appropriate name for the function and an appropriate variable. (a) In 2001 the average cost of attending UCSD (including room and board) was $15,170. In 2009, the average cost of attending UCSD was $25,515. If costs increase linearly, what will be the cost of attending UCSD in 2025? (b) A cars speed is 70 miles per hour, and then it begins to slow down at a constant rate of 10 miles per hour each second.

Solution: (a) Let C(t) denote the cost of attending UCSD and let t be the number of years after 2001. Then C(t) = (constant rate of change)t + (initial amount). Notice that our constant rate of change is the slope, which is calculated as .

The initial amount is 15,170, which is the average cost in 2001. Thus, we have C(t) = (1,293.13)t + 15,170. Plugging in t = 16 (which corresponds to 2025), we have C(16) = 35,860. That is, it will cost on average $35,860 per year to attend UCSD in 2025. (b) Let S(t) denote the speed of the car and t be the number of elapsed seconds after the car began to slow. Then S(t) = (constant rate of change)t + (initial speed). Plugging in the slope and the initial speed, we haveS(t) = -10t + 70. http://math.ucsd.edu/~wgarner/math4c/textbook/chapter3/linearfunctions.htm

SOLUTION: find a linear function whose graph has a slope = -3 and a y intercept of (0, 5) find a linear function whose graph has a slope = -3 and a y intercept of (0, -5) If you want to find the equation of line with a given a slope of which goes through the point ( , ), you can simply use the point-slope formula to find the equation: ---Point-Slope Formula--where is the slope, and is the given point

So lets use the Point-Slope Formula to find the equation of the line

Plug in

, and

(these values are given)

Rewrite

as

Distribute Multiply and

to get

Subtract 5 from both sides to isolate y Combine like terms and to get

Answer:

So the equation of the line with a slope of which is now in is

which goes through the point (

) is:

form where the slope is

and the y-intercept

otice if we graph the equation and plot the point ( need help with graphing, check out this solver)

), we get (note: if you

Graph of through the point ( , ) and we can see that the point lies on the line. Since we know the equation has a slope of and goes through the point ( , ), this verifies our answer.

A linear equation is an algebraic equation in which each term is either a constant or the product of a constant and (the first power of) a single variable. Linear equations can have one or more variables. Linear equations occur with great regularity in applied mathematics. While they arise quite naturally when modeling many phenomena, they are particularly useful since many non-linear equations may be reduced to linear equations by assuming that quantities of interest vary to only a small extent from some "background" state. Linear equations do not include exponents.

Slopeintercept form where m is the slope of the line and b is the y-intercept, which is the y-coordinate of the location where line crosses the y axis. This can be seen by letting x = 0, which immediately gives y =b. It may be helpful to think about this in terms of y = b + mx; where the line passes through the point (0, b) and extends to the left and right at a slope of m. Vertical lines, having undefined slope, cannot be represented by this form. Pointslope form where m is the slope of the line and (x1,y1) is any point on the line.

The point-slope form expresses the fact that the difference in the y coordinate between two points on a line (that is, y y1) is proportional to the difference in the x coordinate (that is, x x1). The proportionality constant is m (the slope of the line). Two-point form

where (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) are two points on the line with x2 x1. This is equivalent to the pointslope form above, where the slope is explicitly given as (y2 y1)/(x2 x1). Multiplying both sides of this equation by (x2 x1) yields a form of the line generally referred to as the symmetric form:

Intercept form

where a and b must be nonzero. The graph of the equation has x-intercept a and y-intercept b. The intercept form is in standard form with A/C = 1/a and B/C = 1/b. Lines that pass through the origin or which are horizontal or vertical violate the nonzero condition on a or b and cannot be represented in this form.