Pure 1 – A Level Maths

Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Lesson Workbook
Edexcel Course

This unit covers:

Covered
Ex Topic R A G
Class HWK Rev.
5A Straight Lines
5B y = mx + c
5C Equation of a straight line
5D Points of Intersection
5E Parallel Lines
5F Perpendicular Lines
5G Length and Area
5H Modelling with straight lines
Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

1: Straight Lines

Examples
A line consists of all points which satisfy some equation in terms of 𝑥 and/or 𝑦.
This means we can substitute the values of a coordinate into our equation whenever we
know the point lies on the line.
1) The point (5, 𝑎) lies on the line with equation 𝑦 = 3𝑥 + 2. Determine the value of 𝑎.

2) Find the coordinate of the point where the line 2𝑥 + 𝑦 = 5 cuts the 𝑥-axis.

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Test Your Understanding

Determine where the line 𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 3 crosses the:
a) 𝑦-axis:

b) 𝑥-axis:

What mistakes do you think it’s easy to make?

Recap of gradient
The steepness of a line is known as the gradient. It tells us what 𝑦 changes by as 𝑥 increases
by 1.
So, if the 𝑦 value increased by 6 as the 𝑥 value
increased by 2, what is 𝑦 increasing by for each unit
increase of 𝑥?

How would that give us a suitable formula for

the gradient 𝑚?

Δ𝑦 Δ is the (capital) Greek letter

𝑚=
Δ𝑥 “delta” and means “change in”.

Examples
Find the gradient of the line that goes through the points:
1) (1, 4) (3,10) 𝑚=

2) (5,7) (8,1) 𝑚 =

3) (2,2) (−1,10) 𝑚 =

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

4) Show that the points A(3,4), 𝐵(5,5), 𝐶(11,8) all lie on a straight line.

Further Example
The line joining (2, −5) to (4, 𝑎) has gradient -1. Work out the value of 𝑎.

𝒚 = 𝒎𝒙 + 𝒄

One form we can put a straight line equation in is:

Why does it work?

Example
Determine the gradient and 𝑦-intercept of the line with equation 4𝑥 − 3𝑦 + 5 = 0

Make 𝑦 the subject so

we have the form

𝑦 = 𝑚𝑥 + 𝑐
Put 𝑦 on the side it’s
positive.

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

𝒂𝒙 + 𝒃𝒚 + 𝒄 = 𝟎
At GCSE, 𝑦 = 𝑚𝑥 + 𝑐 was the main form you would express a straight line equation,
sometimes known as the ‘slope-intercept form’.
But another common form is 𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑦 + 𝑐 = 0, where 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 are integers. This is known as
the ‘standard’ form.

Example
1 2
Express 𝑦 = 3 𝑥 − 3 in the form 𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑦 + 𝑐 = 0, where 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 are integers.

Just for your interest

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Test Your Understanding

2 3
Express 𝑦 = 5 𝑥 + 5 in the form 𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑦 + 𝑐 = 0, where 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 are integers.

Equation using two point/point + gradient

Find the equation of the line that goes through (3,5) and has gradient 2.
How would you have done this at GCSE?

Suppose that (𝑥1 , 𝑦1 ) is some fixed

point on the line that we specify
(e.g. (3,5)).

Suppose that (𝑥, 𝑦) represents a

generic point on the line, which is
allowed to change as we consider
different points on this line.

Then:

𝑚=
The equation of a line that has
gradient 𝑚 and passes through a
point (𝑥1 , 𝑦1 ) is:

𝑦 − 𝑦1 = 𝑚(𝑥 − 𝑥1 )

Lets revisit the question

Find the equation of the line that goes through (3,5) and has gradient 2.

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Quickfire Questions
In a nutshell: You can use this formula whenever you have (a) a gradient and (b) any point
on the line.

Gradient Point (Unsimplified) Equation

𝟑 (𝟏, 𝟐)

𝟓 (𝟑, 𝟎)

𝟐 (−𝟑, 𝟒)

𝟏 (𝟏, −𝟓)
𝟐
𝟗 (−𝟒, −𝟒)

Example - Using two points

Find the equation of the line that goes through (4,5) and (6,2), giving your equation in the
form 𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑦 + 𝑐 = 0.

Test Your Understanding

Find the equation of the line that goes through (−1,9) and (4,5), giving your equation in
the form 𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑦 + 𝑐 = 0.

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

2: Parallel and Perpendicular Lines

Intersection of lines
The diagram shows two lines with equations
𝑦 = 3𝑥 and 𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 4, which intersect at the
point 𝑃.
a) Determine the coordinates of 𝑃.

b) The line 𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 4 intersects the 𝑥-axis

at the point 𝑄. Determine the coordinate of 𝑄.

Test Your Understanding

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Perpendicular Lines
The gradients of parallel lines are equal.
If two lines are perpendicular, then the gradient of one is the negative reciprocal of the
other.
1
𝑚1 = −
𝑚2
To show that two lines are perpendicular:
𝑚1 𝑚2 = −1

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Gradient Gradient of Perpendicular Line

−3

1
4
5

2
−
7
7
5

Example Problems

1) A line is goes through the point (9,10) and is perpendicular to another line with
equation 𝑦 = 3𝑥 + 2. What is the equation of the line?

2) A line 𝐿1 goes through the points 𝐴(1,3) and 𝐵(3, −1). A second line 𝐿2 is
perpendicular to 𝐿1 and passes through point B. Where does 𝐿2 cross the x-axis?

3) Are the following lines parallel, perpendicular, or neither?

1
𝑦= 𝑥
2
2𝑥 − 𝑦 + 4 = 0

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Test Your Understanding

1) A line goes through the point (4,7) and is perpendicular to another line with equation
𝑦 = 2𝑥 + 2. What is the equation of the line? Put your answer in the form
𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑦 + 𝑐 = 0, where 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐 are integers.

2)

Extension Problems

1) What is the reflection of the point (3,4) in the line 3𝑥 + 4𝑦 = 50?

2) The reflection of the point (1,0) in the line 𝑦 = 𝑚𝑥 has coordinates: (in terms of 𝑚)

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

3) The three points 𝐴, 𝐵, 𝐶 have coordinates (𝑝1 , 𝑞1 ), (𝑝2 , 𝑞2 ) and (𝑝3 , 𝑞3 ), respectively.
Find the point of intersection of the line joining 𝐴 to the midpoint of 𝐵𝐶, and the line
joining 𝐵 to the midpoint of 𝐴𝐶. Verify that this point lies on the line joining 𝐶 to the
midpoint of 𝐴𝐵.
The point 𝐻 has coordinates (𝑝1 + 𝑝2 + 𝑝3 , 𝑞1 + 𝑞2 + 𝑞3 ). Show that if the line 𝐴𝐻
intersects the line 𝐵𝐶 at right angles, then 𝑝22 + 𝑞22 = 𝑝32 + 𝑞32 , and write down a
similar result if the line 𝐵𝐻 intersects the line 𝐴𝐶 at right angles.
Deduce that if 𝐴𝐻 is perpendicular to 𝐵𝐶 and also 𝐵𝐻 is perpendicular to 𝐴𝐶, then
𝐶𝐻 is perpendicular to 𝐴𝐵.

Distance between points

Recall: Δ (said ‘delta’) means “change in”.

How could we find the distance

between these two points?

Distance between two points:

√(Δ𝑥)2 + (Δ𝑦)2

Examples Quickfire Questions

Find the distance between: Find the distance between:

(3,4) and (5,7) (1,10) and (4,14)

(5,1) and (6, −3) (3, −1) and (0,1)

(0, −2) and (−1,3) (−4, −2) and (−12,4)

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

3: Area of Shapes and Modelling

Area of Shapes

The diagram shows two lines with equations 𝑦 =

3𝑥 and 𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 4, which intersect at the point 𝑃.

a) Determine the coordinates of 𝑃.

(We did this in a previous lesson)
Just solve two equations
simultaneously.

b) The line 𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 4 intersects the 𝑥-axis at the point 𝑄. Determine the area of the
triangle 𝑂𝑃𝑄.

Further Example

a) Determine the length of 𝑃𝑄

b) Determine the area 𝑃𝑄𝑅.

Tip: When finding areas of triangles

in exam questions, one line is often
vertical or horizontal. You should
generally choose this to be the
‘base’ of your triangle.

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Test Your Understanding

a) Determine the coordinate of 𝑃.

b) Determine the area of 𝑃𝑄𝑅.

c) Determine the length 𝑃𝑄.

What’s the point of straight lines

We saw in Chapter 2 that lots of things in real life have a ‘quadratic’ relationship, e.g.
vertical height with time. Lots of real life variables have a ‘linear’ relationship, i.e. there
is a fixed increase/decrease in one variable each time the other variable goes up by 1
unit.

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Modelling

A mathematical model is an
attempt to model a real-life
situation based on mathematical
concepts.

For this example, our model might be a linear

model with equation 𝑦 = 𝑚𝑥 + 𝑐 where 𝑥 is a
student’s GCSE mark and 𝑦 is the predicted A
Level mark.

Such a linear model can be drawn as a line of best fit.

The data obviously doesn’t fit this line exactly. This chosen model may only partially fit the
data (and the further the points are away from the line, the less suitable this model is).
We might decide another model, e.g.

𝑦 = 𝑎𝑥 2 + 𝑏𝑥 + 𝑐, is more appropriate.
But if we choose a well-known model such as a linear one, then we can use established
mathematical theory in useful ways:
• We need to choose the most appropriate ‘parameters’ 𝑚 and 𝑐 so the model best
matches the data. You will learn in S1 there are existing techniques to do this.
• We can then predict a student’s A Level mark based on their maths mark.

Example The temperature 𝑦 at different points on a mountain is

recorded at different altitudes 𝑥.
Suppose we were to use a linear model 𝑦 = 𝑚𝑥 + 𝑐.

a) Determine 𝑚 and 𝑐 (you can assume the line

goes through (0,70) and (250,20).

b) Interpret the meaning of 𝑚 and 𝑐 in this

context.

c) Predict at what altitude the temperature

reaches 0°𝐹.

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Pure 1 Chapter 5 – Straight Line Graphs

Evaluating if a linear model is most suitable

Choosing a model for our data usually involves making simplifying assumptions. For a linear
model we are assuming:
The 𝑦 value goes up the same amount for each unit increase in 𝑥.

Example

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