To find the intercept put a 0 where the y is in the equation <span>L = ax + by + c = 0. Also note, the a and b and c are there to represent real numbers.
</span><span> ax + b0 + c = 0 </span><span> ax + c = 0 </span><span> ax + c - c = -c </span><span> ax = -c </span> ax/a = -c/a <span>x = -c/a x-intercept = -c/a
To find the y-intercept put 0 were the x is located in the equation </span><span>ax + by + c = 0 and do the same thing as above. </span> <span>a0 + by + c =0 </span>by + c = 0 by +c -c = 0-c by = 0 -c by/b = -c/b y = -c/b The y-intercept is at -c/b
Why does putting a 0 where the x or y is located work? Well, the x-intercept point is (x,0). In this point, you will notice the 0 is located in the y position in(x,y).So to find the x-intercept we put the 0 in the y where it is located in <span>ax + by + c and then solve for x. This is also true for the y-intercept, which is at (0,y). The intercepts are on the axes. The y-intercetp is on the y axes at (0,y) and the x-intercept is on the x axes at (x,0)</span>
