Question

How to solve and figure it out

Answer 1

So your equation is currently in point-slope form; however, to figure out the slope and y-intercept, you'd be better off in slope-intercept form: y = mx + b

while in point-slope form, y - y1 = m(x - x1), you can definitely see the slope as -5, you can't see the y-intercept as easily. x-intercepts are actually the solutions/zeros of a function, and it was included in the answer choices to confuse you.

you're correct about -5 being a decreasing slope. but to figure out the y-intercept, you need to convert to slope-intercept form.

y - 4 = -5(x + 1)  ... distribute the -5
y - 4 = -5x - 5  ... add 4
y = -5x - 1

and in the form of y = mx + b, where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept, you can see that you have a decreasing slope of -5 and a y-intercept of -1. your correct answer is A. choices C and D were thrown in to distract you and make you think that the -5(x + 1) was somehow related to discovering the x-intercept.