Straight Line Equation.

y y

y = -2x + 3

x x
3
y  x2
2
 The Video Shop.
You join a video shop for a membership fee of £3 and then
charges £2 for each video you hire:

Complete the table below for the cost of hiring different

numbers of videos.

No of videos 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Cost of Videos(£) 3 5 7 9 11 13 15

Now draw a graph of the table above.

Cost
14
13
12
11
10
9 Graph of videos
hired against cost.
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 No of Videos
Cost Now consider the structure of the
14
13 graph.
12 The graph cuts the y axis at
11 (0,3) because it cost £3 to join
10 the video shop before you
9 hired any videos.
8
For every square that you
7 move to the right you go two
6 squares up because the cost
5 of each video is £2.
4
3
2
1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 No of Videos
 Finding A Formula.
Look at the table of values for the video hire once again:
V 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
C 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
Find a formula for the cost of videos (C) given the number of
videos (V) :

C = 2V + 3

From the This was the place were the

graph we This was the number graph cut the y axis. This is
saw that : of squares you went up called the y axis intercept.
for each one you went
along.This is called the
gradient of the line.
 Now repeat the question again for a video shop charging £5 to join
and £3 for each video hired.Start by completing the table below.
No of videos 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Cost of Videos(£) 5

Answer the questions below:

Where does the graph cut the y axis ?

(0, 5)

What is the gradient of the line:

Gradient = 3

The full graph is shown on the next slide:

Cost
14 C = 3V + 5
13
Is the equation of the line.
12
11 Gradient of 3.
10
9
8
7
6
5 Y axis intercept
(0,5)
4
3
2
1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 No of Videos
 More About The Gradient.
The gradient (m) of a straight line is defined to be:
change in vertical height.
m
change in horizontal distance.

Change in vertical height.

Change in horizontal distance.

We are going to use this definition to calculate the gradient

of various straight lines:
Find the gradients of the straight lines below:

(1) (2)
4
m= 7
4
3 7
4
m= 3

4
(3)
change in vertical height.
4 m
change in horizontal distance.
m= 4
4
4
m=1
(5) (6)

8 9

6 3

m= 8 = 4 m= 9 =3
6 3 3
 Negative Gradient
Consider the straight lines shown below:

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

Can you split the lines into two groups based on their gradients ?

Lines (a) (c) and (d) slope upwards from left to right. Positive
gradient

Lines (b) and (e) slope downwards from left to right. Negative
gradient
Calculate the gradients of the lines below:

(1) (2)

-4
-8
5
4
m
5
6

8 4
m 
6 3
 The Equation Of A Straight Line.
To find the equation of any straight line we require to know two
things:

(a) The gradient of the line. m = gradient.

(b) The y axis intercept of the line. c = y axis intercept.

The equation of a straight line is : y = m x + c

Examples.
Give the gradient and the y axis intercept for each of the following lines.
(1) y = 6x + 5 (2) y = 4x + 2 (3) y = x - 3
m=6 c=5 m=4 c=2 m=1 c=-3
 Finding The Equation.
Find the equation of the straight lines below:
y y
(1) (2)

x x
1
What is the gradient ? m = 1 m
2
What is the y axis intercept? c=2 c=1
Now use y = m x + c y=x+2 1
y  x 1
2
(3) y (4) y m = -2

c=3

y = -2x + 3

x x
3
m
2
c = -2
3
y  x2
2
 y (6) y 2
(5) m
3
c=2
2
y  x2
3

x x
4
m
3
c=6
4
y   x6
3
 The Gradient Formula.
The Gradient Formula. It shows a straight line passing
through the points (x1,y1) and
Look at the diagram below:
(x2,y2).
y2
We must calculate the gradient
of the line using the triangle
y2-y1 shown:
Change in vertical height:
y1
x2-x1 y2 – y1

Change in horizontal distance:

x1 x2
y 2  y1 x2-x1
Gradient of line: m 
x 2  x1
Calculate the gradient of the line through the points below:

(1) A(4,6) and B( 10,12) (2) C(-4,8) and D(6,-10)

Solution: Solution:

Write down the gradient formula: y 2  y1

m
x 2  x1
y 2  y1
Gradient of line: m  8 - (-10)
x 2  x1 m
-4-6
Substitute in your values: 18
m
12  6 - 10
m
10  4 9
m
Calculate and simplify: 5
6
m  1
6
 Straight Line From Two Points.
Find the equation of the straight line passing through (4,6) and (8,12)
Solution: Now substitute one of the points into
Find the gradient of the line: y = m x + c to find c.
y 2  y1 Sub’ (4,6) into y = 3x +c :
m
x 2  x1 6 = 3 x 4 +c
12  6 6 c + 12 = 6
m  3
84 2
c= -6
Substitute gradient into y = m x + c.
Now write down the equation
y=3x+c of the straight line:
y = 3x - 6
Find the equation of a straight line passing through C(6,-7) and D(-12,9)

Solution. Now substitute one of the points into

y = m x + c to find c.
Calculate the gradient:
y 2  y1 Sub’ (6,-7) into equation:
m
x 2  x1 8
-7  6c
9  ( 7) 16 8 3
m  
12  6 6 3
- 21  8  6  3c
Substitute gradient into y = m x + c.
3c  -21 - 48  -69
8
y  xc c = -23
3
Equation of the straight line:
8
y  x  23
3