How do you find the slope and intercept of #4x – 8y = 8#?

1 Answer
May 31, 2016

Transforming the equation in #y=mx+q#.

Explanation:

When you have the equation in the format

#y=mx+q# you call #m# the slope and #q# the intercept.
So we need to transform the equation in that format.

#4x-8y=8#

first of all we put the terms with the #y# on the left and all the other terms on the right, remembering that when we make the "jump" of the #=# we have to change the sign.

#-8y=-4x+8#

Then we want to have only the #y# on the left, without the #-8#. To obtain it we divide left and right for #-8#.

#\frac{-8y}{-8}=\frac{-4x}{-8}+\frac{8}{-8}#

and doing the calculation, paying attention to do all the signs correctly, we obtain

#y=1/2x-1#.

We are now in the initial format where #m=1/2# and #q=-1#.
So the slope is #1/2# and the intercept is #-1#.