Q:

How would you find the equation for a linear function in the followingsituations? You are given a description of the variables in words.You are given a table of values for the variables. You are given a graph of sample data points.

Accepted Solution

A:
Answer:Step-by-step explanation:First one depends on the words.  You need to know how much one variable is increasing by and how much that increases the other.  say if x increases by 2 and y increases by 3, that means the slope is 3/2, then you would also need to know the first y value.  Say it's 5.  then the equation is y = 3/2 x + 5.Table is pretty similar.  need to find how much x is increasing by and how much that makes y increase by.  then again, it's the change in y divided by the change in x.    and then you also want what happens when x = 0.  Hopefully it's given on the table, otherwise you'll have to work backwards.Graph will probably be the easiest.  You can visually check it's linear, then as long as it is you can find the same x,y coordinates as you did from the table.  Just find two different points to find their slope.  Then, if the y intercept is not included in what is shown, you'll have to work backwards again.