Math Explorations

Algebra I

Max Warshauer
Alex White
Terry McCabe
Hiroko Warshauer

Copyright©2013
TEXAS Mathworks

Published by

Stipes Publishing L.L.C.

204 W. University Ave.
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Publisher: Stipes

Authors: Max Warshauer, Alex White, Terry McCabe, and Hiroko Warshauer

Project Coordinator: Alex White

Project Designers: Alex White and Cody Patterson

Contributing Teachers: Amanda Voigt, Danette Woods, Stephen Frand, Patricia Serviere, Amy
Warshauer, Ashley Beach, Luis Sosa

Editorial Assistance and Problem Contributions: Bonnie Leitch Sam Baethge, Michael
Kellerman, Cody Patterson

Sponsors: RGK Foundation, Kodosky Foundation, Meadows Foundation, and Intel Foundation

ISBN-13 978-1-938858-14-7

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TEXAS Mathworks MATH EXPLORATIONS Algebra I

MATH EXPLORATIONS
Tab le of Cont e nt s

CH. 1: VARIABLES, EXPRESSIONS AND EQUATIONS 1

Section 1.1 Constructing a Number Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Section 1.2 Variables on the Number Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Section 1.3 Variables and Expressions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Section 1.4 Solving Linear Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Section 1.5 Equivalent Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Section 1.6 Equivalent Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Section 1.7 Formulas and Literal Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

CH. 2: EXPLORING FUNCTIONS 39

Section 2.1 Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Section 2.2 Functions and Their Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Section 2.3 Patterns and Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Section 2.4 Applications and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

CH. 3: STRAIGHT LINES 65

Section 3.1 Horizontal and Vertical Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Section 3.2 Slope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Section 3.3 Slope and Proportions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Section 3.4 Slopes and Intercepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Section 3.5 Functions vs. Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Section 3.6 Standard Form of a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Section 3.7 Perpendicular Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

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CH. 4: SYSTEMS OF EQUATIONS 121

Section 4.1 A Graphical Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Section 4.2 Substitution Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Section 4.3 Method of Elimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Section 4.4 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Section 4.5 Consistent and Inconsistent Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

CH. 5: LINEAR INEQUALITIES 147

Section 5.1 Properties of Inequalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Section 5.2 Solving Linear Inequalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Section 5.3 Systems of Linear Inequalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

CH. 6: EXPONENTS 167

Section 6.1 Exponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Section 6.2 Negative Exponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Section 6.3 Exponential Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Section 6.4 Exponential Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Section 6.5 Geometric Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Section 6.6 Scientific Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

CH. 7: POLYNOMIAL OPERATIONS AND FACTORING 199

Section 7.1 Polynomial Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Section 7.2 Polynomial Addition and Subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Section 7.3 Polynomial Multiplication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Section 7.4 Common Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Section 7.5 Factoring x2 + bx + c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Section 7.6 Solving x2 + bx + c = 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Section 7.7 Solving ax2 + bx + c = 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

CH. 8: QUADRATIC FUNCTIONS 239

Section 8.1 Quadratic Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Section 8.2 More Quadratic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Section 8.3 x-Intercepts of Quadratic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Section 8.4 Writing in Vertex Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Section 8.5 The Quadratic Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

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TEXAS Mathworks MATH EXPLORATIONS Algebra I

CH. 9: MODELING 275

Section 9.1 Fitting a Line to Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Section 9.2 Modeling Nonlinear Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

CH. 10: GEOMETRY 289

Section 10.1 The Pythagorean Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Section 10.2 Square Roots and Irrational Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Section 10.5 Distance on the Plane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Section 10.6 Translations and Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Section 10.7 Rotations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Section 10.8 Dilations and Similarity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

CH. 11: RADICAL EXPRESSIONS 339

Section 11.1 The Square Root Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Section 11.2 Operations with Radical Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Section 11.3 Solving Radical Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

CH. 12: RATIONAL EXPRESSIONS 355

Section 12.1 Operations with Rational Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Section 12.2 Direct and Inverse Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Section 12.3 Rational Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

CH. 13: PERSONAL FINANCE 371

Section 13.1 Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Section 13.2 Cost of Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Section 13.3 Planning for Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

CH. 14: STATISTICS 395

Section 14.1 Measure of Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Section 14.2 Shape and Measures of Spread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Section 14.3 Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

INDEX 421

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TEXAS Mathworks MATH EXPLORATIONS Algebra I: 1.1

VARIABLES,EXPRESSIONS
AND EQUATIONS 1
SECTION 1.1 CONSTRUCTING A NUMBER LINE

Name: Date: Period:

Vocabulary

DEFINITION EXAMPLE
Integers

Natural Numbers

Whole Numbers

Rational Numbers

Linear Model

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TEXASMathworks MATH EXPLORATIONS Algebra I: 1.1

More Vocabulary

DEFINITION EXAMPLE
Elements

Sets

Subset

Set Notation

Absolute Value

EXPLORATION 1

Build a number line.

1. Make a number line on a large piece of paper. Put the number 1 in the middle of the line.
Locate and label the first twenty natural numbers.
2. Plot and label 0 on the number line. If we include 0 and the natural numbers, what do we
call the set of numbers?
3. Using a red marker, plot and label the negative integers from −1 to −20.
4. Using a different colored marker, plot and label 3 fractions between each of the following
pairs of integers:

2 and 3 4 and 5 − 1 and 0 − 3 and − 2

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TEXAS Mathworks MATH EXPLORATIONS Algebra I: 1.1

EXAMPLE 1

Create a Venn Diagram to show the relationship between the following sets of numbers:
• rational numbers
• whole numbers
• integers
• natural numbers

EXPLORATION 4

1. Use the number line to illustrate the sum 3 + (−4) and the difference 3 − 4. Explain how you
arrived at your answer and location for each problem. Then, using the same pattern, explain
how you compute the sum 38 + (−63) and the difference 38 − 63 without a detailed number
line.

2. Use the number line to illustrate the difference 3 − (−5) and sum 3 + 5. Then explain how
you compute the difference 38 − (−63) without a detailed number line. 101

3. Summarize the rules for addition and subtraction of integers.

4. Use the number line to illustrate the product 3(−4) and −3(4). Explain how you arrived at
your answer and location for each problem. Then using the same pattern, explain how you
compute the products 18(−6) and −5(12) without a detailed number line.

5. Use the number line to illustrate the product −3(−4). Explain how you arrived at your answer
and location for each problem. Then using the same pattern, explain how you compute the
product −28(−3).

6. Summarize the rules for multiplication of integers.

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TEXASMathworks MATH EXPLORATIONS Algebra I: 1.1

EXPLORATION 5

1. Use the number line to illustrate the sums 1 43 + 2 43 and 45 + 35 . 4 21 , 1 52

2. Starting at the point representing 3, determine and locate on the number line the following
numbers. Explain how you arrived at your answer.
a. The number that is 5 more than this number.

b. The number that is 5 less than this number.

c. The number that is 3 times this number.

d. The number that is half as big as this number.

3. Locate and label three numbers that are greater than −5. Locate and label three numbers
that are less than −6.

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TEXAS Mathworks MATH EXPLORATIONS Algebra I: 1.1

EXPLORATION 6

Use your number line to determine the distance between 6 and 13. How did you arrive at your
answer? 7 by counting from 6 to 13

1. What is the distance from 12 to 4? Explain how you got your answer. 8 by counting from 4
to 12

2. What is the distance from −3 to −11? From −9 to −2? Explain how you got your answers.
8, 7

3. What is the distance from −7 to 4? What is the distance from 5 to −7? Explain how you
got your answers. 11, 12

4. Find the distance between 21 and 3 12 . 3

5. Find the distance between 21 and 34 . 14

6. Find the distance between 43 and 3 12 . 2 43 = 11

4

7. What is the distance from − 21 to 78 ? 1 83 = 11

8

8. What is the distance between 4 32 and 1 12 ? 3 16 = 19

6

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TEXASMathworks MATH EXPLORATIONS Algebra I: 1.1

PROBLEM 2

Compute the distance between the following pairs of numbers.

1. −12 and 6 18

2. −52 and 27 79

3. −23 and −35 12

4. 1.75 and −1.25 3

3
5. 4 and − 13 1 21

SUMMARY (What I learned today)