3.1Introduction to Graphing
3.2Graphing Linear Equations
3.3More with Graphing and Intercepts
3.4Slope and Applications

wherex is the number of years since 2003.
Determine the online retail sales of jewelry in 2003,
in 2008, and in 2015.

Graph the equation and use the graph to
estimate online sales in 2010. Then determine
the year in which sales will be $9.29 billion.

This problem appears
as Example 6 in
Section 3.2.

You probably have seen bar graphs like the following in newspapers and magazines. Note that a straight line can be drawn along the tops of the bars. Such a line is a graph of a linear equation. In this chapter, we study how to graph linear equations and consider properties such as slope and intercepts. Many applications of these topics will also be considered.

In Chapter 2, we graphed numbers and inequalities in one variable on a line. To enable us to graph an equation that contains two variables, we now learn to graph number pairs on a plane.

On a number line, each point is the graph of a number. On a plane, each point is the graph of a number pair. We use two perpendicular number lines calledaxes. They cross at a point called theor igin. The arrows show the posi- tive directions.

give different points. The order of the numbers in the pair is indeed important. They are called ordered pairs because it makes a difference which number comes first. The coordinates of the origin are\ue0000, 0 \ue001.

First
axis
(horizontal)

Second
axis
(vertical)

Plot points associated with
ordered pairs of numbers;
determine the quadrant in
which a point lies.

Determine whether an
ordered pair is a solution
of an equation with two

The first number,\ue0015, is
negative. Starting at the
origin, we move\ue0015 units in
the horizontal direction
(5 units to the left). The
second number, 2, is positive.
We move 2 units in the
vertical direction (up).

The figure below shows some points and their coordinates. In region I (the first quadrant ), both coordinates of any point are positive. In region II (the second quadrant ), the first coordinate is negative and the second posi- tive. In region III (the third quadrant ), both coordinates are negative. In re- gion IV (thefourth quadrant ), the first coordinate is positive and the second is negative.

II
Second
quadrant

I
First
quadrant

IV
Fourth
quadrant

III
Third
quadrant

11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.Find the coordinates of pointsA,