

One very common example is when using the chi-square method to fit some data to a formula or trend. In real life, arriving at the exact minimal point is not possible to do in a finite amount of time, so typically, people will settle for a "close enough" value. Once the x-intercept is calculated, that value of x is used to repeat the process above, a specific number of times, until we arrive at a value of y that is minimum (which means that the derivative will be 0). This is one of the situations in which the slope intercept form comes in handy. Using the derivative as the slope of a linear equation that passes through that exact (x, y) point, the x-intercept is then calculated. This method consists of choosing a value of x for the equation and calculating the derivative of the equation at that point.

In general, any time that a function has an asymptote that lies on one of the axes, it will be missing at least one of the intercepting points. In this case, the linear equation x = 0 represents the asymptote of the function y = 1/x, which means that y = 1/x will never intercept that line and, thus, will not have a y-intercept. Sometimes people may say 1/0 = ∞, but the reality is that infinity is not a number but a concept. So around the point x = 0, we know that y would have a massive value, but because of how math works, it does not have a defined value for that exact point. If we take values closer and closer to 0 (something like 0.1, then 0.001, 0.000001.), we can see that the value of y increases very rapidly.

If we try to find the y-intercept by substituting x = 0, we arrive at what is called a mathematically undefined expression since it makes no sense to divide by 0. The definition might not seem totally clear, but if we look at an example equation, we will have fewer problems with understanding it. An asymptote is a line (that can be expressed as a linear equation) to which the function or curve we are talking about gets closer and closer but never actually crosses or touches that line. The second and third groups of equations are a bit more tricky to imagine and to understand them well, we need to introduce the concept of an asymptote. Please don't try to calculate these types of intercepts on this slope intercept form calculator as these types of equations can potentially break the Internet. A good easy example is y = 3 (or any other constant value of y except for 0) since this is a line parallel to the x-axis and will, thus, never cross or intercept it. The first group (y-intercept only) can have almost any type of equation, including linear equations. We can distinguish 3 groups of equations depending on whether they have a y-intercept only, an x-intercept only, or neither. You will see later why the y-intercept is an important parameter in linear equations, and you will also learn about the physical meaning of its value in certain real-world examples. To find it, you have to substitute x = 0 in the linear equation. The y-intercept is the value of y at which the line crosses the y-axis. You can read more about it in the description of our slope calculator. If it is negative, y decreases with an increasing x. If it is positive, the values of y increase when x increases. It tells us how much y changes for a fixed change in x.

The term slope is the incline, or gradient, of a line. You can use these values for linear interpolation later. This is the so-called slope intercept form because it gives you two important pieces of information: the slope m and the y-intercept b of the line. (For example, you will find an x or a y, but never an x².) Each linear equation describes a straight line, which can be expressed using the slope intercept form equation.Īs we have seen before, you can write the equation of any line in the form of y = mx + b. Linear equations, or straight-line equations, can be quickly recognized as they have no terms with exponents in them. You can check our average rate of change calculator to find the relation between the variables of non-linear functions. In this slope intercept calculator, we will focus only on the straight line.
