Concept

Modeling Real-World Relationships with Linear Equations

Many situations in the physical sciences, social sciences, and business involve a relationship between two variables that can be described by a linear equation. When real-world data is collected and plotted on a coordinate plane, the data points sometimes appear to fall along a straight line. In such cases, the equation of that line serves as a mathematical model of the relationship: once the equation is known, it can be used to predict the value of one variable based on the value of the other. To build such a model, one must be able to find the equation of the line — using whichever information is available (the slope and yy-intercept, the slope and a point, or two points on the line).

0

1

Updated 2026-04-21

Contributors are:

Who are from:

Tags

OpenStax

Elementary Algebra @ OpenStax

Ch.4 Graphs - Elementary Algebra @ OpenStax

Algebra

Math

Prealgebra

Related
Learn After