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Point-Slope Form of a Line
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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:

  1. 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 \( y = mx + b \).
  2. 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

Practice Problems

1. Find the equation of the line that passes through the point \((1, 4)\) and has a slope of \(12\).
(
Solution
x
Solution:
\({\text{y}} = 12{\text{x}} - 8\)
)
2. Find the equation of the line that passes through the point \((1, 4) \)and has a slope of \(2\).
(
Solution
x
Solution:
\({\text{y}} = 2{\text{x}} + 2\)
Details:
We will use the point-slope form to find the equation of the line. Point-slope form is the following:

\({\text{y}}{-}{\text{y}}_1={\text{m}}({\text{x}}-{\text{x}}_1)\)

We will use the point \(({\color{Red}1}, {\color{Purple}4})\) and the slope of \({\color{DarkOrange}2}\) and substitute them in to \({\text{y}}{-}{\color{Purple}{\text{y}}_1}={\color{DarkOrange}{\text{m}}}({\text{x}}-{\color{Red}{\text{x}}_1})\):

\({\text{y}}{-}{\color{Purple}4}={\color{DarkOrange}2}({\text{x}}-{\color{Red}1})\)

Then distribute on the right side:

\({\text{y}}{-}{\color{Purple}4}={\color{DarkOrange}2}{\text{x}}-{\color{DarkOrange}2}(1)\)

Which simplifies to the following:

\({\text{y}}{-}{4}=2{\text{x}}{-}{2}\)

Add 4 to both sides:

\({\text{y}}{-}{4}{\color{Red}+4} = 2{\text{x}} - 2 {\color{Red}+4}\)

Which gives us the equation:

\(y = 2x +{\color{Red}2}\)
)
3. Find the equation of the line that passes through the point \((27, 4)\) and has a slope of \(-\dfrac{2}{9}\).
(
Solution
x
Solution:
\({\text{y}} =-\dfrac{2}{9}{\text{x}}+10\)
)
4. Find the equation of the line that passes through the point \((-11,2)\) and has a slope of \(-\dfrac{5}{11}\). (
Solution
x
Solution:
\({\text{y}}=-\dfrac{5}{11}{\text{x}}-3\)
)
5. Find the equation of the line that passes through the point \((10, 6)\) and has a slope of \(\dfrac{1}{5}\). What is the y-intercept of the line? (
Solution
x
Solution:
\((0,4)\)
Details:
We will use the point-slope form to find the equation of the line. Point-slope form is the following:

\({\text{y}}{-}{\text{y}_{1}}=\text{m}\left ( {\text{x}}{-}{\text{x}_{1}} \right )\)

We will use the point \(({\color{Red}10}, {\color{Purple}6})\) and the slope of \({\color{DarkOrange} \dfrac{1}{5}}\) and substitute them in to the following:

\({\text{y}}{-}{\color{Purple} {\text{y}_{1}}}={\color{DarkOrange} \text{m}}\left ( {\text{x}}{-}{\color{Red} {\text{x}_{1}}} \right )\)

Then distribute on the right side:

\({\text{y}}{-}{\color{Purple}6}={\color{Orange}\dfrac{1}{5}}{\text{x}}-{\color{Orange}\dfrac{1}{5}}(10)\)

Which simplifies to the following:

\({\text{y}}{-}6={\color{Orange}\dfrac{1}{5}}{\text{x}}-2\)

Add 6 to both sides:

\({\text{y}}{-}6{\color{Red}+6}={\color{Orange}\dfrac{1}{5}}{\text{x}}-2{\color{Red}+6}\)

Which gives us the equation:

\(\text{y}={\color{DarkOrange} \dfrac{1}{5}}\text{x}+{\color{Red} 4}\)

The equation is in slope-intercept form, \(y=mx+b\), so we can see that the y-intercept is at \(4\) or the point \((0,4)\).
)
6. Find the equation of the line that passes through the point \((3, 29)\) and has a slope of \(6\). What is the y-intercept of the line? (
Solution
x
Solution:
\((0,11)\)
)

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