{"id":5599,"date":"2022-04-13T17:04:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T00:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studysoup.com\/blog\/?p=5599"},"modified":"2022-04-13T17:04:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T00:04:54","slug":"point-slope-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newblog.studysoup.com\/?p=5599","title":{"rendered":"How to Find the Equation in Point Slope Form\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Miguel Santiago (The Vegan Math Guy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You might\u2019ve had this experience some of my students have:
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You found It REALLY hard to find the equation in point slope form in algebra class. 
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No matter how many hours they\u2019d flip through their notes, they couldn\u2019t get to the answer. In short, the next best bet is getting really effective algebra textbook survival guides<\/a> and an amazing tutor<\/a> (I\u2019m a little biased :).
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All jokes aside- No matter if you\u2019re in high school or college algebra, finding the slope of a line is<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>possible <\/em>if you explain it as it is: easy<\/em>.
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In this post you\u2019re going to learn what point slope form is, the equation of a line and a slope, and two examples to illustrate just how it can be.  
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What is point slope form?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s discuss what point slope form (also called point-gradient form) is and in what situation we use it. 
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Simply put, it\u2019s used to find the equation of a straight line. It\u2019s really useful because all you need is the slope of the line and a point to find the equation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Equation of a Line <\/strong>
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When you find the equation of a straight line, this is the form you can put it in:
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y<\/em>\u2212y<\/em>1=m<\/em>(x<\/em>\u2212x<\/em>1)
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In the equation you can see the variables x <\/em>and <\/em>y<\/em>. There\u2019s also x<\/em>1 and y<\/em>1 which represent the point of a line on the x and y axis. Lastly we have the m <\/em>value which shows the slope of the line.
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So if we put this into a simple context, let\u2019s take a look at this coordinate plane:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Imagine there\u2019s a line that passes through the point (1,3) with a slope of -\u2155 which is represented by the vertical blue line (-1) and horizontal one (5). Hypothetically, that\u2019s how it would be expressed on a coordinate plane. Putting it in point slope form, it would like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

y<\/em>\u22123<\/em>=-\u2155(x<\/em>\u22121<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step by Step Examples:<\/strong> Find the equation in point slope form<\/strong>
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I\u2019m going to show you two typical examples of how to find the equation in point slope form. Check out the video below to see them step by step and read below it to see it in written form:

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