Graphs

Which cyclist will win the race? What will the winning time be? How many seconds will separate the winner from the runner-up? One way to summarize the information from a race is by creating a graph. In this chapter, we will discuss the basic concepts of graphing. The applications of graphing go far beyond races — they are used to present information in almost every field, including healthcare, business, and entertainment.

Sections

• Use the Rectangular Coordinate System — plotting points on a rectangular coordinate system, identifying points on a graph, verifying solutions to an equation in two variables, completing a table of solutions to a linear equation, and finding solutions to linear equations in two variables.
• Graphing Linear Equations — recognizing the relationship between the solutions of an equation and its graph, graphing a linear equation by plotting points, graphing vertical and horizontal lines, and finding the equation of a line from a graph.
• Graphing with Intercepts — identifying the intercepts on a graph, finding the intercepts from an equation of a line, graphing a line using its intercepts, and choosing the most convenient method to graph a line.
• Understand Slope of a Line — using geoboards to model slope, finding the slope of a line from its graph, finding the slope of horizontal and vertical lines, using the slope formula to find the slope of a line between two points, and graphing a line given a point and the slope.

This chapter overview is adapted from Prealgebra 2e, Chapter 11 Introduction by Lynn Marecek, MaryAnne Anthony-Smith, and Andrea Honeycutt Mathis, © OpenStax, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Access the original for free at openstax.org. Changes: condensed the chapter introduction and recast the chapter outline as a section list.