How do you write an equation of a line that is parallel to y+3x=7 and passes through point (7,2)?

1 Answer
Feb 9, 2015

I would use first your equation to find the SLOPE of your line. Basically the slope is a number that tells you what the inclination of your line is.
So, to find the parallel to your line you need a line with the same inclination...the same slope:
Your line: y+3x=7 can be written (isolating the y on the left) as:
y=-3x+7 this allows you to "read" immediately the slope of your line, the coefficient of x, which in your case is -3.

Now the difficult bit...
The slope represents the inclination of your line and basically tells you how y changes when x changes!

For example, a big slope means that at every fixed change in x the value of y changes a lot and your line is VERY steep!!!
Have a look at this picture:

enter image source here

slope 5 is steeper than slope 2!

To find your slope you simply take the change in y divided by the change in x:

In your case:

slope=(Deltay)/(Deltax)=(y_2-y_1)/(x_2-x_1) but you want a slope which is equal to the one of your original line: -3
Together with the coordinates of your point you can write:
slope=(y_2-y_1)/(x_2-x_1)
-3=(y-2)/(x-7)
-3x+21=y-2 and finally your line:
y+3x=23
Graphically:

enter image source here

hope it helps