How do you graph a linear equation without using a table of values?
Any linear equation can be written as y = mx + c m is the gradient it tells you how steep the line is. If the gradient is 3 the line is sloping left to right upwards and y is increasing 3 times faster than x. If the gradient is – 2 the line slopes from right to left upwards y is decreasing twice as fast as x is increasing. If the gradient is 1 the line is at 45deg. If the line is less than 1 x increases faster than y. All lines with the same gradient are parallel. The value of c tells you where the line crosses the y axis. y = 1/2x – 1, slopes from right to left upwards, x increases twice as fast as y (fractional gradient) and the line crosses the y axis at – 1.
