We can also find the equation of a line when given the slope and any point (not the y-intercept), and there are two methods to do so. The following video will use a single example to show how to use both methods to find the equation of a line with a given slope and single point.
Point-Slope Form of a Line
Video Source (09:40 mins) | Transcript
These are the two methods to finding the equation of a line when given a point and the slope:
- Substitution method = plug in the slope and the (x, y) point values into \( y = mx + b \) and solve for b. Use the m given in the problem, and the b that was just solved for, to create the equation \( y = mx + b \).
- Point-slope form \( = y − y1 = m ( x − x1 ) \), where \( (x1, y1) \) is the point given and m is the slope given. The "x" and the "y" stay as variables.
Additional Resources
- Khan Academy: Intro to Point-Slope Form (06:07 mins, Transcript)
- Khan Academy: Point-slope and Slope-intercept Equations (07:06 mins, Transcript)
Practice Problems
1. Find the equation of the line that passes through the point \((1, 4)\) and has a slope of \(12\).(
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