A linear equation is one that has the following form:
Where "m" is the slope of the line, and "b" is the point at which it crosses the y-axis.
For our case "y" is actually represented by a "c", so we can rewrite the expression as:
The first thing we need to do is determine the slope of the line, which is done by using the following formula:
Where (x1,c1) and (x2,c2) are two data points, which were provided to us by the problem. Applying these on the expression, we have:
We have the following expression for now:
We need to determine the value for b, to do that we can apply a data point and solve for b.
The full expression is:
The expression is c=13*x-25773.
Now we need to use this expression to predict the cost in 2005. This is done by replacing x with 2005 and solving for c.
The cost of the tuition in 2005 will be $292 per credit hour.
Now we need to use the expression to predict in which year the tuition will cost $331 per credit hour.
The tuition will cost $331 per credit hour in 2008.