Algebra II Essentials For Dummies

Chapter 2

Lining Up Linear Equations

IN THIS CHAPTER

Establishing a game plan for solving linear equations

Working through special rules for linear inequalities

Making short work of absolute value equations and inequalities

The term linear has the word line buried in it, and the obvious connection is that you can graph many linear equations as lines. But linear expressions can come in many types of packages, not just equations or lines. In this chapter, you find out how to deal with linear equations, what to do with the answers in linear inequalities, and how to rewrite linear absolute value equations and inequalities so that you can solve them.

Getting the First Degree: Linear Equations

Linear equations feature variables that reach only the first degree, meaning that the highest power of any variable you solve for is 1. The general form of a linear equation with one variable is .

The one variable is the x. But, no matter how many variables you see, the common theme to linear equations is that each variable has only one solution or value that satisfies the equation when matched ...