Hi guys,
So here's the question: In the xy-coordinate plane, the graph of x = y^2 - 4 intersects line l at (0, p) and (5, t). What is the greatest possible value of the slope of l?
So i'm an SAT tutor and have been for months now - I think I do a very good job in all of the subjects and love working with high schoolers. It wasn't until yesterday, there were a few math problems that I knew in theory how to do but couldn't arrive at the right answer. Hopefully you guys can help me and I will in turn rely the information to my students.
So for the problem above, I realized that since y is squared that the y value that can work for the two points will be either positive or negative. So I ended up with the points (0, 2), (0, -2), (5, 3), and (5,-3). The answer for the greatest possible value is 1 - I wondered besides finding the slopes for the 4 various combinations of pairs of points - is there any easier way to arrive at the answer? Also when I see a variable squared - should I always be on the lookout that positive and negative values will work for it?
Thanks!
So here's the question: In the xy-coordinate plane, the graph of x = y^2 - 4 intersects line l at (0, p) and (5, t). What is the greatest possible value of the slope of l?
So i'm an SAT tutor and have been for months now - I think I do a very good job in all of the subjects and love working with high schoolers. It wasn't until yesterday, there were a few math problems that I knew in theory how to do but couldn't arrive at the right answer. Hopefully you guys can help me and I will in turn rely the information to my students.
So for the problem above, I realized that since y is squared that the y value that can work for the two points will be either positive or negative. So I ended up with the points (0, 2), (0, -2), (5, 3), and (5,-3). The answer for the greatest possible value is 1 - I wondered besides finding the slopes for the 4 various combinations of pairs of points - is there any easier way to arrive at the answer? Also when I see a variable squared - should I always be on the lookout that positive and negative values will work for it?
Thanks!