A line contains the points (-3, -2) and (7,2). 1. Without doing any calculations, determine whether the slope of this line is positive or negative.
Explain or show your reasoning
2. Calculate the slope of the line.

From the given function, the x-intercepts will be calculated as follows:
at x-intercept f(x)=0, thus when f(x)=0
f(x)=7x^2+9x+1
we shall have:
0=7x^2+9x+1
solving the above using quadratic formula the above we get:
x=[-b+/-sqrt(b^2-4ac)]/2a
from the function, a=7, b=9 and c=1
thus plugging the values in the formula we obtain:
x=[-9+/-sqrt(9^2-4(7*1))]/(2*7)
x=[-9+/-sqrt(53)]/14
x=-9/14+√54/14
or
x=-9/14-√54/14
thus the x-intercepts are the values of x