Creating a slope formula linear equation

C

cosmikoi

New member
Joined
Jul 17, 2019
Messages
3
hi, this is on a practice test for the GED. They have an explanation to the problem but honestly I dont understand what they're saying and I'm still confused on a lot of things about it.. here's the question: 12947
and here's the explanation they give:
12946

I don't have any work for this, because I didn't know how to start. so, how would you know this is a slope formula? and how would this look if you wrote it out on paper instead of a written response, or is this something you use a calculator for? i also don't know what the term coefficient means
thanks in advance
 
> how would you know this is a slope formula?

It is said in the question that it is a linear equation.
y = m * x + b

> what the term coefficient means

This is the m in my formula above.
 
I fear my answer will not help you. I find the question and explanations almost incomprehensible myself.

"model the context" is meaningless. "a linear equations that fits" is not even grammatical.

Second, no real scientist would use this procedure because it excludes most of the information patiently collected over years.

Third, even the explanation does not explain the meaning of the two rows of four boxes.

Where in the world does this question come from? Does it come from the GED or some other source?
 
The problem is meant to look as if it were a real-life problem, but it isn't. That only makes it confusing.

They are asking for a linear equation -- the equation of a straight line through all the points. In real life, that would mean the "best fit" line through points that are only approximately collinear; but "it just happens" that the data here is perfectly linear. As a result (as they tell you in the explanation, but not in the problem), you just have to pick any two points and write the equation of the line through them. The Answer Rationale tells you exactly what to do. But this is the sort of problem I hate, where if you know anything beyond what they are testing, you will think they want you to do something much harder than that, and will waste time trying to figure out the real nature of the problem.

The drag-and-drop aspect is effectively a way to turn what should have been merely typing in your equation into a sort of multiple choice; they want you to show that you know where x goes, and to know that the slope and y-intercept are among the 7 numbers provided. You do need to be familiar with the slope-intercept form (y = mx + b); any equation of a line with y on the left and no parentheses is necessarily in this form. I suppose they didn't want to explicitly name the form or give an example, to make it harder for you. They do sort of explain about dragging and dropping (though they should have said "variable and numbers" rather than "variables and number").

I hope this is nothing like the real GED. It does appear to have been written by someone who doesn't speak English natively.
 
sorry for the late reply, but thanks everyone! its a relief to know i'm not the only one confused about it.
I did miss the question saying point blank for a linear equation, and now i get it. I was trying to solve for something a lot more complicated rather than just put the numbers in the right spots for the formula


JeffM said:
Where in the world does this question come from? Does it come from the GED or some other source?
Click to expand...
it's actually from the GED site itself here unfortunately
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top