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Standard Form of a Line

The standard form of a linear equation is

A x + B y = C .

The advantage of standard form is that it accommodates both horizontal lines ( A = 0 ) and vertical lines ( B = 0 ) .

The disadvantage is that A , B , and C do not stand for anything obvious (like the slope or y -intercept ). In fact, they are not unique: if we double them all, we get back the same line! You can check this with the following example.

x + 2 y = 3 2 x + 4 y = 6

These two equations, both in standard form, represent the same line.