What is the slope-intercept form of a linear equation?

• A. y = mx + b
• B. ax + by = c
• C. y = x^2 + b
• D. x = y

Answer: (A)

The idea is to express a line so you can read its slope and where it crosses the y-axis directly. In slope-intercept form, the equation looks like y = m x + b, where m is the slope (how steep the line is) and b is the y-intercept (the value of y when x equals 0). This structure makes it easy to understand and graph the line at a glance, since both essential features are explicit.

Because it follows that exact pattern, y = m x + b is the slope-intercept form.

Other forms present the line differently. An equation like ax + by = c uses a different arrangement and doesn’t place the y variable alone on one side in the y = mx + b pattern. If you have y = x^2 + b, that’s not linear—the x^2 term creates a parabola, not a straight line. And x = y describes a vertical line, which cannot be written as y = m x + b because the slope would be undefined.