Introduction to Linear Functions
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:- Represent a linear function.
- Determine whether a linear function is increasing, decreasing, or constant.
- Calculate and interpret slope.
- Write the point-slope form of an equation.
- Write and interpret a linear function.
Like the growth of a bamboo plant, many situations involve a constant rate of change. Consider, for example, the first commercial maglev train in the world, the Shanghai MagLev Train. It carries passengers comfortably for a 30-kilometer trip from the airport to the subway station in only eight minutes.[footnote]http://www.chinahighlights.com/shanghai/transportation/maglev-train.htm[/footnote]
Suppose a maglev train were to travel a long distance, and that the train maintains a constant speed of 83 meters per second for a period of time once it is 250 meters from the station. How can we analyze the train’s distance from the station as a function of time? In this section, we will investigate a kind of function that is useful for this purpose, and use it to investigate real-world situations such as the train’s distance from the station at a given point in time.
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- Precalculus. Provided by: OpenStax Authored by: Jay Abramson, et al.. Located at: https://openstax.org/books/precalculus/pages/1-introduction-to-functions. License: CC BY: Attribution. License terms: Download For Free at : http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]..