find equation for attendance at NHL games, in terms of year

Ok, here's how the problem goes:

Between 1980 and 1990, the attendance at National Hockey League games increased by about 1,100,000 people per year. In 1989, 20,434,000 people attended NHL games. Find an equation that gives the attendance, y, at NHL games in terms of the year, x. Let x=0.

I'm not sure how to put this in slope-intercept form, but once I get that, I can figure the problem out.

What x-value will you use to stand for "1980"? What x-value would then stand for "1990"?

For every increase in x of 1, by how much does y increase? So what is the slope of the line?

Working backwards, what was the attendance in 1980?

What does the y-value represent when x = 0?

Eliz.

This can be a little confusing:

think of it this way:

At year 1990 people = 20434000
At year 1980 people = 20434000 - 1000000(10) = 10434000

People = 10434000 at year 1980 and people increase by 1000000 each year

how would you write that as a linear equation?

y = mx + b

what value would you use for m and b?
what does x and y represent?

Hope this helps.

jwpaine said:

...and people increase by 1,000,000 each year

Click to expand...

It's actually an increase of 1,100,000 each year, but your methodology is perfectly correct.

Eliz.