Algebra 1

Section 2.2

Linear Equations and Modeling

Algebraic Equations

The extensions of algebraic expressions are algebraic equations. Equations involve an equality
that relates two expressions. Here, we will study linear algebraic equations which require that every
expression in the equation is linear.

There are two primary types of linear algebraic equations. One type involves a single variable
while the other type involves multiple variables. For example, 3x + 7 = 1 involves only a single vari-
able, x. Contrastingly, the equation 3x 4y = 2 involves two variables. The reason it is important
to distinguish between these two types of equations is that when an equation has a single variable
the value of the variable can be solved for and usually determined uniquely. However, when a sin-
gle equation involves multiple variables, one must know the value of all but one variable to determine
the value of that variable. Equations with multiple variables describe a relationship between quantities.

Solving Linear Algebraic Equations

As discussed above, when an algebraic equation has only one variable, it is possible to solve for
that variable by adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing both sides of the equation. The goal of
solving an equation is to get a variable by itself. For example, with the equation 13 x 3 = 4, one first
adds 3 to both sides of the equation. That is because the 3 is furthest from the variable, x, while
still being on the same side of the equation as the variable. Adding 3 yields 13 x 3 + 3 = 4 + 3, and
combining the constants we get 13 x = 7. Now, one only needs to multiply by 3 to cancel the fraction
being multiplied by the variable to get the variable alone. Doing this yields 3 13 x = 3 7 which
becomes x = 21. Thus, we have solved the equation and found uniquely that x = 21.

Sometimes the variable will be on both sides of the equation. If this is the case, one needs to
subtract the variable term of one side of the equation from both sides of the equation and combine
like terms. Take, for example, the equation 4x + 3 = 2x 1. Subtracting 2x from both sides of the
equation will get rid of the x term on the right hand side of the equation. 4x 2x + 3 = 2x 2x 1,
so after combining like terms we get 2x + 3 = 1. Now, we subtract 3 from both sides of the equation
to get 2x + 3 3 = 1 3, or 2x = 4 and finally divide by 2 to get 22 x = 4
2 , or x = 2.

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 Sometimes, an algebraic equation may not have a unique solution. Consider the equation
3x + 5 = 3x 1. To solve this, one would first subtract 3x from both sides. This results in the
equation 3x 3x + 5 = 3x 3x 1, or 5 = 1. However, it is impossible that 5 = 1, so the original
equation has no solution. Notice this is true because for any number x, 3x = 3x always. Thus, adding
5 to the quantity 3x and subtracting 1 from the quantity 3x will produce different values which can
never be equal. Thus, for any value of x, the equation will be false. This results in the fact that the
equation has no solution.

On the other extreme, an equation may have infinitely many solutions. Take the equation 4(x +
1) 2 = 4x + 2. If we add two to both equations and expand the term 4(x + 1) using the distributive
property, we get 4x + 4 2 + 2 = 4x + 2 + 2, or 4x + 4 = 4x + 4. Subtracting 4x from both sides yields
4x 4x + 4 = 4x 4x + 4, or 4 = 4, which is always true. Thus, for any value of x, the equation is
true. This means the equation has infinitely many solutions.

Graphing Linear Algebraic Equations

If a linear algebraic equation has two variables, it is impossible to find unique values of both
variables if they are both unknown. For example, consider the equation 2y = 3x 1. The values y = 1
and x = 1 solve the equation, but so do the values y = 4 and x = 3. Thus, we have that the value
of a variable in the equation changes depending upon the value of the other variable in the equation.
In such an equation, we call the variable that depends on another variable the dependent variable.
The variable that is free to change is called the independent variable.

To see how the dependent variable changes as the independent variable changes, we can make a
table or a graph that lists the values of each variable as they change. Note that for abstract algebraic
equations, the dependent and independent variables are arbitrary, meaning one may pick which ever
variable they choose to be dependent or independent. Usually, y represents the dependent variable
and x represents the independent variable. Below is a table that demonstrates how y changes with
different values of x for the equation 2y = 3x 1.

Value of x Value of y
1 1
2 2.5
3 4
4 5.5
5 7

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 For a visual representation of how y changes with x, it is common to use a graph in the xy-plane.
Not that all linear equations will produce lines in the plane, and so by plotting two pairs of points
from a table and connecting them with a line, the graph of a linear equation can be produced. Using
the values from the table above, for example, the graph below demonstrates the relationship between
x and y in the equation 2y = 3x 1 by connecting the points (1, 1) and (3, 4), which both satisfy the
equation and so both lie on the graph. The red line is the graph of the linear equation.

(3,4)

(1,1)
x

It can be useful to convert an equation to point-slope form. Equations of this form look like
y = mx + b. Here, m represents the slope of the line and b represents the y intercept of a line. The
slope of a line is the increase in y between two points divided by the increase in x between two points.
The y intercept of a line is the y value of the point that crosses the y-axis, or when x = 0. To get
an equation into point-slope form, one must solve an equation for y. For example, with the equation
2y = 3x 1, we only need to divide both sides of the equation by 2. This yields y = 23 x 12 . Indeed,
this follows point-slope form with m = 32 and b = 21 . As we can see from the graph, the line does
cross the y-axis around y = 12 and for every 2 increases in x, y increases by 3.

Point-slope form allows graphing to be easier, because instead of creating a table, one needs only
to plot the y-intercept and another point on the line based on the slope. For example if the y-intercept
was 3 and the slope was 2, we plot the point (0, 3) and (1, 5), since for every increase in x by 1, y
increases by 2. Then, connecting these points will produces a graph of the line.

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Modeling with Linear Algebraic Equations

We can use algebraic equations to model situations in the real world. Many quantities are re-
lated linearly. For example, if a grapefruit at a store costs $5 and an apple costs $3, and we want to
know the price, p, of buying g grapefruits and a apples, we can model the situation with the equation
p = 5g + 3a. Then, if we know how many grapefruits and apples were purchasing, we can calculate
the price of our grocery run. Note that here, the price depends on the quantity of fruit purchased, so
g and a are independent variables while p is a dependent variable.

Also, consider the situation where a company donates $2 for every pair of shoes bought, plus
a beginning donation of $100. The amount of money donated, d, can be expressed in terms of the
number of pairs of shoes bought, p, by the equation d = 2p + 100. Here, the donation depends on the
price of shoes so d is the dependent variable and p is the independent variable. This equation can also
be graphed with d on the vertical axis and p on the horizontal axis to give a visual representation of
the relationship between the money donated and the amount of shoes bought.

When graphing algebraic models of real-life situations, the vertical axis should be the dependent
variable and the horizontal axis should be the independent variable. Note that time does not depend
on anything, so in any situation where time is involved, time is an (or the) independent variable.

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Examples

Here are a few examples to test the concepts provided in this section. Answers can be found on
the following pages.

1. Solve the equation 5x 3 = 32 x + 1 for x.

2. To be a member of The Math Club, one needs to first pay a registration fee of $50, and then a
membership fee of $10 every month. Create an algebraic equation that represents the price of a
membership, p, after m months.

3. What are the dependent and independent variables in the equation from question 2?

4. Put the equation from question 2 in point-slope form if it is not already, and then graph the
equation.

5. Solve the equation 4x 2 = 2(2x 1) for x.

6. Which of the following algebraic equations has no solution?

A. 3x + 1 = 3
B. x + 1 = x 1
C. 3(x 1) = 2(x + 3)
D. 6 2x = 2(3 x)

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Solutions

These are the solutions to the questions on the previous page

1. Adding 3 and subtracting 32 x from both sides yields 5x 32 x 3 + 3 = 23 x 32 x + 1 + 3. Combining

like terms and simplifying produces 72 x = 4. Then, we must multiply by 27 to get 27 27 x = 27 4
which simplifies to x = 78 .

2. p = 10m + 50 models the situation.

3. The price depends on the number of months one has been a member, so price is the dependent
variable and the number of months of membership is the independent variable.

4. The equation is already in point slope form. A graph is given below with the red line from
plotting the p-intercept (0, 50) and the point (1, 60).

(1,60)

(0,50)

5. Applying the distributive property yields 4x 2 = 4x 2, which is always true for any value of
x. Thus, the equation has infinitely many solutions.

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6. The answer is B. The first equation can be easily solved to show that only x = 23 satisfies the
equation. The second equation is solved first by canceling the x terms on both sides, which yields
1 = 1, which is never true and so the second equation has no solution. The third equation
when expanded by the distributive property is 3x 3 = 2x + 6, and subtracting 2x from both
sides while adding 3 to both sides yields x = 9, a single solution. The fourth equation when
expanded is 6 2x = 6 2x, which is true for every value of x, and so the fourth equation has
infinite solutions. We find the only equation with no solutions is the second one, so the answer
is B.