Question

What can be the first step in finding the equation of the line that passes through the points (5, 4) and (-1, 8) in slope-intercept form?

A) Calculate -1 - 5 = -6.
B) Calculate 8 - (-4) = 12.
C) Find that the point at which the line intersects with the line Y-O is (3, 0).
D) Find that the point at which the line intersects with the line -Y is (2.2)

Answer 1

The correct first step is to calculate the slope of the line by taking the difference in y-values divided by the difference in x-values, thus option B is correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

The first step in finding the equation of the line that passes through the points (5, 4) and (-1, 8) in slope-intercept form is to calculate the slope of the line.

Given two points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), the slope (m) is calculated as the change in y values divided by the change in x values:

m = (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1)

For the given points (5, 4) and (-1, 8), the slope would be calculated as:

m = (8 - 4) / (-1 - 5) = 4 / -6 = -2/3

This is the slope of the line that we will use in the slope-intercept form of the equation.

Therefore, the correct first step here is B) Calculate 8 - (-4) = 12, which is part of the process of calculating the slope.