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What is the equation of the line that passes through the point (5,-1) and has a

slope
of 1/5

1 Answer

12 votes

Answer:

y=1/5x-2

Explanation:

You want to find the equation for a line that passes through the point (5,-1) and has a slope of 1/5.

First of all, remember what the equation of a line is:

y = mx+b

Where:

m is the slope, and

b is the y-intercept

To start, you know what m is; it's just the slope, which you said was 1/5. So you can right away fill in the equation for a line somewhat to read:

y=1/5x+b.

Now, what about b, the y-intercept?

To find b, think about what your (x,y) point means:

(5,-1). When x of the line is 5, y of the line must be -1.

Because you said the line passes through this point, right?

Now, look at our line's equation so far: . b is what we want, the 1/5 is already set and x and y are just two "free variables" sitting there. We can plug anything we want in for x and y here, but we want the equation for the line that specfically passes through the the point (5,-1).

So, why not plug in for x the number 5 and for y the number -1? This will allow us to solve for b for the particular line that passes through the point you gave!.

(5,-1). y=mx+b or -1=1/5 Ă— 5+b, or solving for b: b=-1-(1/5)(5). b=-2.

The equation of the line that passes through the point (5,-1) with a slope of 1/5

is

y=1/5x-2

User Oleksii Zymovets
by
6.4k points
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