Algebra Graphing Help? I'm A Little Dumbfounded?

Question

Here's a screenshot of what I need help on:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll237/glitterangelmaker/Untitled-1.jpg

Can somebody help and explain it to me?

Answer 1

Hi I'm not telling you, if that is your real name ;)

What you need to do here is just think of some easy values for x that you can put in to the equation to find the corresponding y values.  For this example put in x=0 and you get y=-1 so the point (0,1) is one point on the line.  Then continue try -1 and you get y=0 so (-1,0) is another point and then x=1 gives y=-2 so (1,-2) is a third point on the straight line.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 2

In y = -x - 1, -1 indicates the intersection on the y-axis.  So that point is (0,-1).  Your first point.  Now the -x indicates the slope.  The slope is -1, and slope being rise over run is -1/1.  So go down one square from (0,-1) and go the right one square and you have your second point.  Add one more point this same way, going the same direction.  The line should be a perfect diagonal to the graph.