A line equation can be written in slope-intercept form, which is:
[tex]y=mx+b[/tex]
where m represents the slope and b represents the y-intercept.
The slope indicates the rate of change(if positive the function value increases as the x value increases, if negative the function value decreases as the x value increases), and the y-intercept represents the point where the line cuts the y-axis.
In our problem, we have the line:
[tex]y=2x+59[/tex]
The slope of this line is 2, therefore, the road is increasing at a rate of 2 miles/day.
The y-intercept represents the day the construction started. The length of the road when the crew started working was 59 miles.
