Linear or nonlinear, step by step

Linear means the graph is a straight line.

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The question

Linear or nonlinear?

y = x/5 + 20

y = x/5 + 20

y = x/5 + 20

Linear or nonlinear?Linear

Linear means the graph is a straight line, and one thing decides it: what is being DONE to x. Multiplied by a number and added to — that is a line. Anything else is not.
Look at what happens to x: it is multiplied by a number, and a number is added or taken away. Nothing else is done to it.
That is exactly the mx + b shape — dividing by 5 is multiplying by a number, so the steps in y stay equal. It is a line.

How it works.

01
Linear means the graph is a straight line, and one thing decides it: what is being DONE to x. Multiplied by a number and added to — that is a line. Anything else is not.
02
Look at what happens to x: it is multiplied by a number, and a number is added or taken away. Nothing else is done to it.
03
That is exactly the mx + b shape — dividing by 5 is multiplying by a number, so the steps in y stay equal. It is a line.