Slope-Intercept Form
- Author:
- Rivkah Singh
Exploring The Slope-Intercept Form
1. Identify the x and y intercepts.
2. With your mouse, drag slider “m” to a positive value. Reading the graph from left to right, what does the line y = mx + b look like now?
3. With your mouse, drag slider " m" to a negative value. Reading the graph from left to right, what does the line y= mx + b look like now?
4. With your mouse, drag slider "m" to a value of 0. What does the line y = mx + b look like now?
5. With your mouse, drag slider "b" to a positive value. Now try sliding it to a negative value. What happens to the line y= mx + b when you do this?
6. How is slider “m” related to the equation y = mx + b ? Justify your answer.
7. How is slider "b" related to the equation y = mx + b? Justify your answer.
8. With your mouse, drag slider "m" to change its value. Next, change the value of slider "b". Write your own equation in slope-intercept form by using the values that you found.
9. Drag point P on the line y=mx+b. What happens to the values of the x and y coordinates of point P? Does the line change when you drag point P? Why or why not? Do you think the slope changes when you move point P? Why or why not?
10. How are the points related to the slope?
11. Calculate the slope by using the ordered pair solutions of two points available on the line. Calculate the slope again by using two different points on the line. (The formula for slope is provided on the worksheet) Do your results match with the value "m" on the slider?
12. After completing this worksheet, what do you think slope is? List two different ways of calculating slope.