Intercepts by Substitution

Key Questions

  • Answer:

    If you know the x intercept, you should have a coordinate.
    (x-value,0) If you know the y intercept, you should have another coordinate. (0,y-value)

    Explanation:

    Plot the points on the graph starting right or left with the x value and then up or down with the y-value, finding where they intersect and placing a point. You should have 2 points when you are done. Connect them using a ruler or straight edge and you have graphed a line. graph{y=1/2x+2 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

    Looking at this graph, you will see that the x intercept is -4,0 and the y intercept is 0,2

  • For linear equations:

    • Substitute 00 for yy and solve for xx to find the xx-intercept.

    • Substitute 00 for xx and solve for yy to find the yy-intercept.

  • The x-intercepts of a graph of y=f(x)y=f(x) are the x-coordinates of the points where the graph hits the xx-axis, and the y-intercept is the yy-coordinate of the point where the graph hits the yy-axis.


    I hope that this was helpful.

  • An intercept is a point of intersection (a point where a line crosses another line)- Typically, in terms of linear graphs, finding xx and yy intercepts are asked, or the intercepts of line with another line.

    Let's look at xx and yy intercepts. We can consider the xx-axis as a line, and the yy-axis as a line. A line can only intersect another line in one point, so there will be one xx-intercept, and one yy-intercept for a linear graph. Note that an intercept is a point in the form of (x,yx,y)

    -To find an xx intercept, we have to find the point where the line intersects the xx-axis. To do this, we set yy=0 and solve the equation for xx. This makes sense because when y=0, we can only move in the xx-direction...hence finding the exact value of xx when yy is zero.

    -To find a yy intercept, we have to find the point where the line intersects the yy-axis. To do this, this time we set x=0 and solve the equation for the remaining yy. This makes sense because when x=0, we can only move in the y-direction, and then find the point where the line crosses that y-axis.

    After that we end up with an xx-intercept in the form of (x,0x,0) and a yy-intercept in the form of (0,y0,y).

    To find where a line intersects another line, you can solve both equations for yy (or xx) and then set them equal to each other. When you set them equal to each other, you end up with one unknown, which you can solve for with some algebra. When you get that unknown, you can plug it into one of the original equations to the other unknown.

    Alternatively, we could always graph the line(s) and observe the points of intersection.

    For example, to see where the line y=2x+4 y=2x+4 intersects the axes, you can just look at the graph. You'll see that it intersects the xx-axis in the point (-2,0) and the yy-axis in the point (0,4).

    graph{2x+4 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

    Notice that if you wanted to find this algebraically, you would set the y=0y=0 and solve for xx to find x=-2x=2 as an intercept, and then set x=0x=0 and find y=4y=4 as another.

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