Graphs of Linear Equations

Key Questions

  • A table is just a basic way of organizing data into rows and columns. If you have some information like high temperature for each day of the year your table might look like this:

    DAY                High Temperature (ºC)
    January 1          2
    January 2        -5
    January 3        -7
    

    You could write this out in text like this: "On January first the high temperature was 2 degrees celsius. On January second the high temperature was seven degrees colder...." The problem with this is that it makes it very difficult to understand the information and takes a lot of text. A well organized table allows you to quickly scan through a set of data and see simple trends. It also stores information very efficiently and makes it easy to update without making errors.

    If you're doing simple graphing for a math class, the headings of the columns will be more boring things like X and Y.

    X      Y
    0      0
    1       2
    2      4
    3      9
    
  • This questions is a bit confusing, but I think I know what you're saying.

    A linear equation, when graphed, is always a straight line. So if you had two variables, your equation would look something like this:

    y = 3x + 4

    The "y" technically is another variable, but by putting the equation into this form, it does not matter anymore.

    On a graph, a linear equation would begin somewhere on the y-axis and continue in a straight line in any direction from there.

    Hope this helped

  • The easiest way to sketch the graph of a linear equation is to find any two distinct points on the graph such as intercepts, then draw a straight line through them.


    I hope that this was helpful.

Questions