How do you graph #7x - 2y = 2# by plotting points?

1 Answer
Mar 16, 2018

A common way is to find the intercepts.

Explanation:

Find the y-intercept by isolating y on the left side of the equal sign. This is also called slope-intercept form.

#7x-2y=2#

#-2y=(-7x) +2#

#y=(-7x)/-2+2/-2#

#y=7/2x-1#

This gives us our y-intercept: (0, -1)

Find the x-intercept by isolating x on the left side of the equal sign.

#7x-2y=2#

#7x=2y+2#

#x = 2/7y+2/7#

This gives us our x-intercept: ( #2/7# , 0)

Here's a graph of the equation. Notice the intercepts:
graph{y=7/2x-1 [-0.609, 1.891, -1.13, 0.12]}