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General Form of a Equation (1 Viewer)

maths94

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when writing the general form of a equation should the x always b a positive or it doesnt matter? example. btw they are 2 totally different equations

4x+y-10=0...[1]

-4x+2y-20=0...[2]

are they both correct? or which one is correct?
 

occer

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They are both correct if I can remember. I prefer the first term to be a positive though.
 

jonowang

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when writing the general form of a equation should the x always b a positive or it doesnt matter? example. btw they are 2 totally different equations

4x+y-10=0...[1]

-4x+2y-20=0...[2]

are they both correct? or which one is correct?
only the first one is correct. general form is ax+by+c where a is always a positive integer
 

annabackwards

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wiki says convention, not rule, is a is positive, but anna dominates maths, so i'm going to say a should be positive...
Oh is it convention? I just thought it had to be positive because my nazi teachers wouldn't give marks if there were fractions and it was not positive XD

You learn something new everyday :)
 

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