Question

What is the pattern in words if you get paid 15 dollars in 1 hour, 22 dollars in 2 hours, 29 dollars in 3 hours?

Answer 1

You can say:
You get $15 for the first hour and $7 for every next.

Or you can say:
You get $8 to get started plus $7 for every hour

You may want to translate that last stement into a lineair equation:

`y = 8 + 7.x = 7x+8`

Where `y` = payment ($), and `x` = hours worked.
`7` is called the slope;
It tells you how `y` changes for every change in `x`
and `8` is the so-called `y`-intercept:
where the graph crosses the `y`-axis (the `y`-value for `x=0`)
(of course, in real life you wouldn't get paid that $8 if you made 0 hours! but this is maths)

With the equation you can easily work out your payment for any number of hours worked.