Answer:
Since you are looking for an equation to represent the pattern, the correct equation in y = mx + b form would be y = 4x - 3.
Explanation:
It's important to look for two things in order to write a slope-intercept form equation: the rate of change, and the beginning value.
First thing we can start with is the rate of change, which can be found by simply selecting any two points - or in this case terms - and find the difference between term values and term number, and then divide them by each other to find the rate of change. To make things easy, we can just use terms 1 and 2. Term 1 has a term 1 value of 1 block, while term 2 has a value of 5 blocks. In order to find the rate of change, we first find the difference in term value (5 - 1 = 4 blocks), then find the difference in term numbers (2 - 1 = 1 term), and lastly divide the difference in term value by the difference in term number (4 ÷ 1 = 4 blocks per term), which is your rate of change. Note that 4 is the number of blocks each term increases by when the term number increases by 1, and not the total number of blocks in each term.
Now that we know the rate of change, we can input it into the base equation, which will become y = 4x + b. Now we only need to find b. The simple way to solve for b would be to use a single term as reference, and plug in its term number and value into the equation and calculate b. Once again, it's easier to just use the lowest one, which would be term 1, with a term number of 1, and a term value of 1. By inserting these values, we'll get an algebraic equation to solve for b, which is 1 = 4(1) + b or 1 = 4 + b. Now, we just need a value for b that would make 4 + b equal to 1, which would be b = 1 - 4 = -3, so b would equal -3. Which means the final equation to represent this situation would be y = 4x - 3.
Have a great day! Feel free to let me know if you have any more questions :)