Equation of secant line

rocomath

Wow, someone asked me this question and I'm stumped.

Find the equation of the secant line that contain [tex]P[0,f(0)][/tex] and [tex]Q[3,f(3)][/tex]

Am I given enough information to solve this?

[tex]m=\frac{f(x+h)-f(x)}{h}[/tex]

...

[tex]m_1=\frac{f(h)-f(0)}{h}[/tex]

[tex]m_2=\frac{f(3+h)-f(3)}{h}[/tex]

That doesn't really help me though, unless I'm not thinking hard enough!

rock.freak667

Isn't a secant line just a straight line with those two points?

uhm....

[tex]m=\frac{f(3)-f(0)}{3-0}[/tex]


but the answer would be in terms of f(3) and f(0)

rocomath

Yeah and I'm given 2 points and I need to find an equation that contains both. Hmm.

rocomath

Oh I think I got it now, haha. My brain finally kicked in.

rock.freak667

What was it? Finding the equation of a line given two points? Or was my brain malfunctioning as well?

rocomath

Yeah, seems like the only thing to do.

[tex]m=\frac{f(3)-f(0)}{3}[/tex]

[tex]y-f(0)=\frac{f(3)-f(0)}{3}(x-0)[/tex]

Not sure what else to think of.

rock.freak667

I would hope that is all there is to it.