SAT Mathematics : Graphing Linear Equations

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT Mathematics

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Example Questions

Example Question #33 :Graphical Representation Of Functions

Line A is represented by the line。Which of the following represents the equation of a line that is perpendicular to Line A and that travels through point?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

This problem tests two key principles related to lines in the coordinate plane. For one, the slopes of perpendicular lines are negative reciprocals of each other (e.g.and。So here since you need to find a line perpendicular to a line with slope of, you're looking for the negative reciprocal。You can therefore eliminate choicesand, which do not have the proper slope.

The second key concept relates to what a point in the coordinate plane is. Because points are all given in the formyou know that for a point to pass through the pointit will need to allow forto equalwhenequals。To find theterm (in), take what you do know about the line:

From here, addto each side to isolateand you'll have your answer:

, so the correct equation is

Example Question #1 :Graphing Linear Equations

Which of the following equations represents a line that is perpendicular to?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order for two lines to be perpendicular, the slopes need to be negative reciprocals of each other. Since the given slope is, you're looking for a slope of

To find the slope, you need to put the equations in point-slope form,, whereis the slope. Checking the answer choices quickly:

Choicesandwill each givea positive coefficient, as your first step is to geton the opposite side of the equation from

Only choicesimplifies to a coefficient of:

Example Question #1 :Graphing Linear Equations

Line J has a y-intercept of 6 and passes through point。What is the slope of Line J in terms ofand?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

You know that the line goes through pointand the y-intercept of 6 tells you that the line also goes through point。So you can use the "rise over run" slope formula to calculate the slope. Recognizing that the five answer choices focus on, and 6, you should see that you should subtract 0 and 6 (subtracting 0 is the same as doing nothing at all) to get your math looking like the answer choices. So you'll set up the equation:

Example Question #36 :Graphical Representation Of Functions

In the coordinate plane, Line J passes through the origin as well as pointsand。Which of the following could be the slope of Line J?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

That Line J passes through the origin gives you a very helpful bit of information regarding point-slope form。That tells you that when, meaning thatmeaning thatalso equals。这需要一个变量,允许你to work on the two points knowing that the line has a constant slope,:

For point, that means that

For point, that means that

This means that you can plug ininto the first equation, allowing you to solve for(the slope):

(or).

Example Question #37 :Graphical Representation Of Functions

In the coordinate plane, Line A has a slope of -1 and an x-intercept of 1. Line B has a slope of 2 and a y-intercept of -2. If the two lines intersect at the point, what is the sum?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When attempting to find where two lines intersect, it is typically best to get the lines in the form。For Line A, you know that the slope is -1, so you have a head start in that。So you're starting with。然后记住——x轴截距是重点at which, so that point is。You can then plug that point into the equation to find:

, so。You know now that Line A has the equation

For Line B, you know that the slope is 2 (so) and that whenis,。Plug that into the line equation to solve for b and you have -2 = 2(0) + b, so b = -2. Now you know the equation for Line B:

Sinceand, the two lines will intersect where。Algebraically that leads you to, so。Plug that back into either line to find y, and you'll find that。Since the point of intersection is, the summakesthe correct answer.

Example Question #38 :Graphical Representation Of Functions

Screen shot 2020 10 01 at 9.46.18 am

The graph of a linear equation is shown in the xy-plane above. The slope of the graph of the linear equation, whereandare constants, is twice the slope of the graph of the given equation. If the graph ofpasses through the point, what is the y-intercept of the new line?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We’ll need to use the graph of the linear equation to better understand the existing line, so that we can draw conclusions about the new line. Since the existing line moves vertically by one for every three it moves to the right, our slope, orisSince our line crosses the y axis at the point (0, 4), our full equation is

Thus, our new line will have a slope ofsince the question told us that the slope of our new line,, will be twice the slope of the pictured line. Now, to find the full equation of the new line, and thus its y-intercept, we’ll want to plug the known point of the lineinto the equation.

If, we can solve for!

, thus

So, our new line is(shown below in blue) and its y-intercept is

Screen shot 2020 10 01 at 9.51.24 am

Example Question #39 :Graphical Representation Of Functions

The line, where m is a constant, is graphed in the xy-plane. If the line contains the point, whereand, what is the slope of the line in terms ofand?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To identify the slope of the line, we’ll want to identify two points on the line to find theotherwise known as theOne point,is given to us. Our other point can be determined by looking to the y-intercept, in this case,。So, if we identify ourby taking, we arrive ator, our correct answer.

Example Question #1 :Graphing Linear Equations

Which of the following points does the lineNOT pass through?

Possible Answers:

(6, 12)

(2, 7)

(14, 25)

(-5, -3.5)

Correct answer:

(6, 12)

Explanation:

In order to attack this question, we can plug in the value of x for each coordinate to see if the proper value of y matches. for

(2, 7) if we plug in 2 for x, we can see that

which does in fact = 7.

For (-5, -3.5), if we take the same step we can see that

does give us a y value of -3.5.

For (14, 25), plugging in x = 14 gets us to

which simplifies to 25.

So, by default we can see that our correct answer must be

(6, 12), since an input of 6 gives us

which equals 13, not 12. So,(6, 12)是唯一点*不*。

Example Question #1 :Graphing Linear Equations

What is the area of the triangle formed by the lines,, and?

Possible Answers:

15

48

6

45

Correct answer:

45

Explanation:

In order to find the area of the triangle, we can use relevant points such as the point of intersection and the x intercepts. In this case, the point of intersection is the point at which the equations of the lines are equal. So, if

then x = 4, and if we plug 4 back into our equation we can see that y = 6. So, the point of intersection is (4, 6).

If we set y = 0 for each equation, we can also find the x intercepts, in this case, (1, 0) and (16, 0).

The triangle will appear as follows

Screenshot 2020 10 06 090922

At this point, we can use the x intercepts to find the base, 16-1 or 15, and the point of intersection to find the height, in this case 6.

If the area of a triangle is

we can fill in the unknowns with

to arrive at an area of45

Example Question #2 :Graphing Linear Equations

The equation3.x+2y=6represents a line. This line does NOT pass through which of the four quadrants?

Possible Answers:

III

II

I

IV

Correct answer:

III

Explanation:

We can quickly visualize this line to draw conclusions.

In order to do so, plug in0forxto find a point on the line:

3.(0)+2y=6

y=3.

Thus,(0,3.)is a point on the line.

Plug in0foryto find a second point on the line:

3.x+2(0)=6

x=2

(2,0)is another point on the line.

Now we know that the line passes through the points(2,0)and(0,3.)

A quick sketch of the two points reveals that the line passes through all but the third quadrant.

*note - a line with a positive slope will always pass through quadrants I and III, while a line with a negative slope will always pass through quadrants II and IV.*

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