Question

How do you find the slope of `3x + 5y = -2`?

Answer 1

`m=-3/5`

Explanation:

You want to convert the equation to the form: `y=mx+b`, where `m` is the slope, and `b` is the y-intercept.

`[1]" "3x+5y=-2`

Our goal will be to isolate `y`. We start by subtracting `3x` from both sides.

`[2]" "3x+5y-3x=-2-3x`

`[3]" "5y=-2-3x`

Next, we want to remove the coefficient of `y`, so we multiply `1/5` to both sides.

`[4]" "(1/5)5y=(1/5)(-2-3x)`

`[5]" "y=-2/5-(3/5)x`

We have met our goal of converting the equation to slope-intercept form. The slope is simply the coefficient of `x`.

`:." "color(blue)(m=-3/5)`