Exercise 8 Page 297

We want to determine whether the given table represents a linear or nonlinear function. To do this, we will calculate the rate of change between data points.

We can see that as x decreases by 4, y increases by 2 each time. The rate of change is constant, so this function is linear.

Checking Our Answer

We can check our answer by graphing the points on a coordinate plane.

The points fall on a line. Therefore, as we have already said, the function is linear.