Pure Maths - Chapter 5

Straight Line Graphs

Chapter Overview
There is little new theory since GCSE, but the algebraic manipulation is harder.

1:: , Gradient & Determining Equations 2:: Parallel/Perpendicular Lines

Find the equation of the line passing through and , A line is perpendicular to
giving your equation in the form and passes through . Find the
, where are integers. equation of the line.
NEW! since GCSE
The equation for a line with given gradient and
going through a given point.

3:: Lengths and Areas 4:: Modelling

The line crosses the -axis and A plumber charges a fixed cost
-axis at the points and plus a unit cost per day. If he
respectively. charges £840 for 2 days work
Determine: and …
(a) The length and
(b) The area .
 y

Let’s start simple… 4

What is the equation of

this line? 3

And more importantly,

2
why is it that?
1

x -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

-1

-2

-3

𝑥=2
?
-4
For any point we pick on the
line, the value is always 2.
Lines and Equations of Lines
 A line consists of all points which satisfy some equation in terms
of and/or .

Yes, you can

Sorry, you
join as:
can’t join as
so you
Get can
lost.join.

Anirudh’s Line Club

Membership Rules:
Examples
This means we can substitute the values of a coordinate into our equation
whenever we know the point lies on the line.

The point lies on the line with equation . Determine the value of .

Substituting in and value:

Find the coordinate of the point where the line cuts the -axis.

On the -axis, . Substituting:

Test Your Understanding
Determine where the line crosses the:

a) -axis: Let .

b) -axis: Let

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

• Mixing up /: Putting answer as rather than .
• Setting to find the -intercept, or to find the -intercept.
Recap of gradient
The steepness of a line is known as the gradient.
It tells us what changes by as increases by 1.
So if the value increased by 6 as the value
increased by 2, what is increasing by for
each unit increase of ?
𝑚 How would that give us a suitable formula
for the gradient ?
1
Δ𝑦
𝑚=
Δ𝑥
is the (capital) Greek letter “delta”
and means “change in”.
Textbook Note:
The textbook uses for two points and . Reasons I don’t use it for non-algebraic coordinates:
• Students often get the and the wrong way round (or with the ’s)
• Students often make sign errors when dealing with negatives, e.g.
• It can’t be done as easily mentally,
• Students see it as “yet another formula to learn” when really all you need is to appreciate is what gradient is, i.e. “
change per change”.
Examples
Find the gradient of the line that goes through the points:

( 1 , 4 ) (3 , 10 ) 𝑚=3
1

( 5 , 7 ) ( 8 , 1)
2 𝑚=− 2
8
(3 2 , 2 ) (− 1 , 10) 𝑚=− 3
4 Show that the points all lie on a straight line.

Gradients the same ‘collinear’.

If points are
‘collinear’ they lie
on the same line.
Further Example
The line joining to has gradient -1. Work out the value of .

𝑎−− 5
=− 1
4−2
𝑦 =𝑚𝑥 + 𝑐
One form we can put a straight line equation in is:

Gradient -intercept

Why does it work?

• The -intercept by definition is the value when .
Substituting:
as expected.
• By the definition of gradient, if we increase by 1, should
increase by :

which indeed has increased by .

𝑦 =𝑚𝑥 + 𝑐
Determine the gradient and -intercept of the line with equation

Make the subject so

we have the form

Put on the side it’s

positive.

Divide each term by 3;

don’t write otherwise
it’s not in the form

This is algebra, so use

improper fractions,
and not mixed
numbers or recurring
decimals.
𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑦 + 𝑐 = 0
At GCSE, was the main form you would express a straight line equation,
sometimes known as the ‘slope-intercept form’.
But another common form is , where are integers. This is known as the
‘standard’ form.

Express in the form , where are integers.

3 𝑦= 𝑥 − 2 We don’t want fractions, so multiply by an

appropriate number.

Put everything on either side of equation.

would also be OK.

We’ll see on the next slide WHY we might want to

put an equation in this form over …
Just for your interest…
Why might we want to put a straight line
equation in the form ?

“Slope-Intercept Form” “Standard Form”

Usefulness
Coverage Symmetry This more ‘elegant’ form also
means it ties in with vectors
We can extend to 3D points to
get the equation of a plane:
doesn’t allow you to In general, the ‘linear
and matrices. In FM, you will
represent vertical combination’ of two Conveniently, in equation , the
learn about the ‘dot product’
lines. Standard form variables and is , i.e. “some vector is perpendicular to the
of two vectors:
allows us to do this by amount of and some line. And in equation , the
just making zero. amount of ”. There is a
thus since , we can represent a vector is perpendicular to the
greater elegance and plane. Nice!
straight line using:
symmetry to this form over
because and appear
𝑥+4=0

similarly within the

expression.

()( )
2 𝑥

2𝑥
2 𝑥+ 𝑦=4 ⋅ =4
1 𝑦 (2
1)

+𝑦
=
Test Your Understanding
Express in the form , where are integers.

5 𝑦 =2 𝑥+ 3
Equations using two points/point + gradient
Find the equation of the line that goes through and has gradient 2.

How would you have done this at GCSE?

If gradient is 2, then equation of the line is of the form:

Since is on the line, it must satisfy this equation.

Therefore:
A new way…
𝑦
Suppose that is some fixed point on the
line that we specify (e.g. ).
( 𝑥, 𝑦 ) Suppose that represents a generic point
on the line, which is allowed to change as
( 𝑥1, 𝑦 1) we consider different points on this line.
Then:

Fro Notes: Note that and are constants

𝑥
while and are variables. The latter are
variables because as these ‘vary’, we get Thus:
different points on the line.

! The equation of a line that has gradient

and passes through a point is:

Let’s revisit:
Find the equation of the line that goes through and has gradient 2.
No manipulation required! Just plug in
𝑦 −5=2 ( 𝑥 − 3 ) numbers and we’re done.
Again, note that and are variables so
need to remain as such.
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

?
?
?
?
?

Important Fro Side Note: I’ve found that many students shun this formula and just use the
GCSE method. Please persist with it – it’ll be much easier when fractions are involved.
Further Mathematicians, don’t even think about using the GCSE method, because you’ll
encounter massive headaches when you consider algebraic points. Trust me on this one!
Using 2 points
Find the equation of the line that goes Test Your Understanding:
through and , giving your equation in Find the equation of the line that goes
the form through and , giving your equation in
. the form
.

We need to work out the gradient first

before we can use :

Using :

Using (we could have also used ):

Intersection of lines
The diagram shows two lines with
𝑦 equations and , which intersect at
the point .
𝑦 =3 𝑥
a) Determine the coordinates of .
𝑃 We know from Chapter 4 we can
just solve two equations
simultaneously.
𝑥+ 2 𝑦= 4

𝑥
𝑂 𝑄
b) The line intersects the -axis at the
point . Determine the coordinate of .
When
Area
Test Your Understanding
 y

1 1?
𝑚= ? 3 𝑚=−
2 3
2
𝒃
1
𝒂
𝑚=3?
x -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
𝒂
? -1

𝑚=−2
-2
𝒃 Find the gradients of
Using the changes above, we can see the -3 each pair of
gradient of one line is and the other . One is the perpendicular lines.
‘negative reciprocal’ of the other. -4 What do you notice?
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.

To show that two lines are perpendicular:

Gradient Gradient of Perpendicular Line

-4
Example Problems
1 A line is goes through the point (9,10) and is perpendicular to another line with
equation . What is the equation of the line?

A line goes through the points and . A second line is perpendicular to and
2 passes through point B. Where does cross the x-axis?

Are the following lines parallel, perpendicular, or neither?

3

Neither. Gradients are and . But , not -1, so not perpendicular.

Test Your Understanding

1 A line goes through the point 2 Determine the point .

(4,7) and is perpendicular to 𝑦
another line with equation .
What is the equation of the
line? Put your answer in the
form , where are integers. 𝐴
𝑦=
− 1
2 𝑥+
4

𝑥
Equation of other line:
Exercise 5E/5F
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 96

Extension Problems 2 [MAT 2014 1D] The reflection of the point in the
1 What is the reflection of the point in line has coordinates: (in terms of )
the line Using a similar method:
?
Gradient of is .
Equation of line passing through
perpendicular to ths line:
3 The three points have coordinates and , respectively.
Find intersection of two lines to get Find the point of intersection of the line joining to the
closest point of to original line: midpoint of , and the line joining to the midpoint of .
Verify that this point lies on the line joining to the
Thus reflected point is midpoint of .
The point has coordinates . Show that if the line
intersects the line at right angles, then , and write down a
similar result if the line intersects the line at right angles.
3𝑥 Deduce that if is perpendicular to and also is
( 6 ,8 ) +4 perpendicular to , then is perpendicular to .
𝑦=
( 3 , 4) 50
Distances between points
Recall: (said ‘delta’) means “change in”.
How could we find the
(5 , 9) distance between these two
points?
?
5 ?
Hint: Pythagoras

Δ 𝑦 =3? Form a right-angled triangle

using the change in and
change in , then use
Pythagoras.
(1 , 6) Δ 𝑥 =4?

! Distance between two points:

Examples
Distance between:

and ?
and
and
? Fro Note: Unlike with gradient, we
? don’t care if the difference is
positive or negative (it’s being
squared to make it positive
anyway!)

Quickfire Questions:

Distance between:

and ?
and
and
?
?
Area of Shapes
The diagram shows two lines with
𝑦 equations and , which intersect at
the point .
𝑦 =3 𝑥
a) Determine the coordinates of .

𝑃 (We did this in a previous lesson)

Just solve two equations
simultaneously.
𝑥+ 2 𝑦= 4
b) The line intersects the -axis at the
point . Determine the area of the
𝑥 triangle .
𝑂 𝑄 When
Area

?
Further Example
a Determine the length of .
𝑦
2 𝑦 = 𝑥+ 4
When
𝑅

𝑃 Distance :

𝑄
𝑥+ 𝑦 =8

𝑥
𝑂

Fro Tip: When finding areas of b Determine the area .

triangles in exam questions, one
line is often vertical or horizontal.
Use as the base:
You should generally choose this
to be the ‘base’ of your triangle.
Test Your Understanding
𝑦
a) Determine the coordinate of .
𝑄2 𝑦 + 𝑥=12 𝑦 =𝑥 − 3
b) Determine the area of .
𝑃
c) Determine the length .

𝑂 𝑥

𝑅
Exercise 5G
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 102-103

Extension Problems
1 The shortest distance from the origin to the line is what?

Gradient of is . Therefore gradient of line going through origin and

closest point is (see diagram). This line therefore has equation
Solving two equations simultaneously, we get point of intersection .
Therefore distance .

3𝑥
+4
𝑦=
( 0 ,0 ) 25
What’s the point of straight line equations?
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.

Examples The relationship

between Celsius and
Car sales made and take
Fahrenheit.
home pay.

Temperature and
altitude (in a particular
location) (And a pure maths one:)
The th term of an
arithmetic series.

3, 5, 8, 11, 14, …
Modelling
𝑦
100 A mathematical model is
an attempt to model a
A Level Maths Mark

80 real-life situation based on

mathematical concepts.
60
40 For this example, our model might
be a linear model with equation
20 where is a student’s GCSE mark
𝑥 and is the predicted A Level mark.
20 40 60 80 100
GCSE Maths mark

Such a linear model can be drawn as a line But if we choose a well-known model such as a
of best fit. linear one, then we can use established
The data obviously doesn’t fit this line mathematical theory in useful ways:
exactly. This chosen model may only • We need to choose the most appropriate
partially fit the data (and the further the ‘parameters’ and so the model best matches
points are away from the line, the less the data. You will learn in S1 there are
suitable this model is). existing techniques to do this.
We might decide another model, e.g. • We can then predict a student’s A Level mark
, is more appropriate. based on their maths mark.
Example
𝑦
100
80

Temperature
60
40
20

𝑥
50 100 150 200 250
Altitude (m)

The temperature at different points on a mountain is recorded at different altitudes .

Suppose we were to use a linear model .

a Determine and (you can assume the line goes through and .

Interpret the meaning of and in this context. ?

b The temperature at sea level is . The temperature goes down for each extra metre in
altitude.
?
Predict at what altitude the temperature reaches .
c
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 value goes up the same amount for each unit increase in .

The current population of Bickerstonia is 26000. This year (2017) the population
increased by 150. Matt decides to model the population based on the years
after 2017 by the linear model:

Why might this not be a suitable model?

The population is unlikely to increase by the same amount each year.

i.e. the assumption

Fro Note: Population tends to grow/decline by a percentage each of a linear model is
year. Therefore a better model would be an exponential function violated.
where are constants. The would be the initial population and the
the factor increase each year, e.g. would be a 10% annual growth.