Posted by shansen1@pacbell.net (67.114.254.115) on October 03, 2003 at 20:13:41:
In Reply to: need help graphing! posted by on October 03, 2003 at 17:01:41:
1. Obtain graph paper, pencil and a ruler. Sometimes you can simply steal these from a sibling.
2. Using your pencil, put a dot near the center of the page where two lines cross. Mark this point {0,0} "the origin."
3. Locate the point {x,y} = {-2,-4}. It is located in the third quadrant, 2 units left and 4 units down from the origin. Put a dot there as well.
4. Slope is defined to be 'rise over run,' like the pitch of a roof. In this case the slope is 2/3. This means if (starting from anywhere) I 'run' three units in a positive direction (i.e., horizontally to the right), I will 'rise' by two units vertically. So lets calculate where that second point will be. Starting at x =-2, we 'run' three units right putting us at x = 1. Starting at y = -4 we 'rise' by two units, putting us at y = -2. So draw another point there at {1,-2}.
5. Use the ruler to draw a line between those two points ,i.e., {-2,-4} and {1,-2}
6. Have a Pepsi, you're done.