Molten lava coming out of a Hawaiian volcano cools down and forms rock.

Which statement best describes the flow of energy in this scenario?

AnsYou want to find the equation for a line that passes through the two points:

(0,5) and (-8,0).

First of all, remember what the equation of a line is:

y = mx+b

Where:

m is the slope, and

b is the y-intercept

First, let's find what m is, the slope of the line...

The slope of a line is a measure of how fast the line "goes up" or "goes down". A large slope means the line goes up or down really fast (a very steep line). Small slopes means the line isn't very steep. A slope of zero means the line has no steepness at all; it is perfectly horizontal.

For lines like these, the slope is always defined as "the change in y over the change in x" or, in equation form:

So what we need now are the two points you gave that the line passes through. Let's call the first point you gave, (0,5), point #1, so the x and y numbers given will be called x1 and y1. Or, x1=0 and y1=5.

Also, let's call the second point you gave, (-8,0), point #2, so the x and y numbers here will be called x2 and y2. Or, x2=-8 and y2=0.

Now, just plug the numbers into the formula for m above