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Poweranimals
Jul11-04, 11:44 PM
What characteristics about a straight line can you determine from the slope-intercept form of its equation? Explain how to find these characteristics from the equation.

Okay, so I know the equation, but what characteristics am I supposed to be able to determine from a straight line. My teacher says I should know this for a test tomorrow. I wrote it down, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to figure out here.

theriddler876
Jul12-04, 12:08 AM
you can tell the slope, and the Y intercept

kuenmao
Jul12-04, 01:50 AM
Slope intercept form:

y=mx+c

m is the slope. c is the y intercept.

Zurtex
Jul12-04, 06:15 AM
Also of the form

y = mx + c

Its x intercept is -c/m.

Zorodius
Jul12-04, 07:47 AM
I think this question is a little too open-ended. The answer your teacher is probably looking for is "the slope and the X and Y intercepts", but if you have the equation of a straight line, you could find out anything at all about it. You could find out the area under the line in any given quadrant, or combination of quadrants, or between the line and a curve, or you could find a line perpendicular to the given line at any point, or another line that forms any desired angle with the given line at any point, or the distance between any point on the line and any other point, or the tangent to the line (always a great question for straight lines), and so on. There isn't really any limit to the number of things you could figure out about the line.

Philosophysics
Aug17-04, 09:21 AM
a line can always be split in half and, in turn, the remaining halves can also be halfved, this goes on to infinity. If this is the case any line is made from infinite parts and all lines, in turn, must be infinitely long.

put that in your equation pot and boil it.

matt grime
Aug17-04, 09:45 AM
But the halved line does not split into two lines, does it?

HallsofIvy
Aug17-04, 01:49 PM
a line can always be split in half and, in turn, the remaining halves can also be halfved, this goes on to infinity. If this is the case any line is made from infinite parts and all lines, in turn, must be infinitely long.

put that in your equation pot and boil it.

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