Explore the Lesson

A. General Form of a Linear Equation



Sometimes "general form" is referred to as "standard form". Keep this in mind if you research this topic further, either online or with a different textbook.
In the previous lesson, you learned about the slope-intercept form of a linear equation. It was advantageous to work with this form because you were able to readily identify the slope and the y-intercept of the graph of the related linear relation. There are other ways of writing linear equations that offer different advantages. One of these other ways is called the general form.


General Form
the equation of a line written as Ax + By + C = 0, where A and B are not both zero; by convention, A, B, and C are whole numbers, and A is positive

 

Example 1

Express in general form.