Explore Straight Lines

You could use the Desmos Graphing Calculator to explore straight lines.

Suppose you want to have a look at the graph of y = 2x+1. All you need do is click and type your function.
y=2x+1

Note that you can easily change the colour of the graph (particularly useful if you have more than one graph on the screen). Simply click edit then choose your colour.
Desmos edit Desmos Straight lines 1

If you select Options options icon you can easily change the axes.
options

Desmos printIt is possible to print a graph if you are signed in to Desmos (creating an account is free or you can sign in with Google, Facebook or Twitter) – just select the print icon

You can use sliders in the Desmos calculator to explore families of graphs. If you type in y = mx +c you will be given the option to add sliders. Select all to add both sliders:

sliders

Now click on the image below and try changing the values of m and c and see the changes to the graph.

y=mx+c 

With m=2 and c=1 we can see the graph of y = 2x+1 which has a gradient of 2 (note that for every one unit across you go two units up) and an intercept (where the line crosses the y axis) of 1.
y=2x+1 gradient and intercept

 

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