Equation Of A Line From Two Points On The Line

When two points (x 1, y 1) and (x 2, y 2) on a line are given, we may also find the equation of the line as shown in the following example:

Example :

Find the equation of the line passing through the points (–4, 3) and (2, – 5).

Solution :

Step 1 : Find the slope of the line (refer to video below for the slope formula)

Slope ,

The equation of the line has the form y = - x + c

Step 2 : Substitute the coordinates of one of the 2 given points in the equation to get the value of c.

Substituting ( - 4, 3) into the equation, we have

The required equation is

The following video shows how to use the slope formula to calculate the slope of a linear equation given two points.

The following video shows how to find the equation of a line given two points on the line.

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