Geometry test..

Question

What is an equation of the line that passes through the point (4, -3) and is parallel to the line x - 2y = 2 

Answer 1

We rearrange x - 2y = 2 to obtain y = x/2 - 1 which tells us that the slope of the line is 1/2. Since we are looking for a line parallel to this line, the line we are looking for also has a slope of 1/2. We write our line as y = x/2 + b, where b is the unknown y-intercept. Since our line passes through (4, -3), the point is a solution to the equation. By substitution:

-3 = 4/2 + b

-3 = 2 + b

-5 = b

Thus, the equation of our line is y = x/2 - 5.