How do you find the x and y intercept?

Answer 1

Slope and y-interceptIn the general equation of the line, y=mx+b, the slope is m and the y-intercept is b.

You can find the y-intercept for a linear equation in any form by setting x to zero and solving for y. Similarly, you can find the x-intercept by setting y to zero and solving for x.

In the above general equation, the x-intercept is -b/m.

Answer 2

It depends on whether you are doing the question graphically or algebraically.

Working from a graph:

The x-intercepts are the points where the graph cuts the x-axis. The y-coordinates of these points are 0.

The y-intercepts are the points where the graph cuts the y-axis. The x-coordinates of these points are 0. A function cannot do this since then it would be a one-to-many mapping which is NOT a function. However, some equations (eg a circle) may give rise to more than one y-intercepts.

Working from an equation:

Let y = 0 and find the values of x that satisfy the equation. These are the x-intercepts.

Let x = 0 and find the values of y that satisfy the equation. These are the y-intercepts.