What is the Degree of a Linear Equation?

The degree of a linear equation is always one.

A linear equation is defined as an equation where the highest power of any variable is 1. This means that no variable is raised to a power greater than 1. The variables can be multiplied by constants and added together, but the exponents of the variables themselves must be equal to one.

For example:

• y = 2x + 3 is a linear equation. The degree of x is 1, and the degree of y is 1.

• 3a + 4b - c = 7 is a linear equation. The degree of a, b, and c are all 1.

• x = 5 is a linear equation. The degree of x is 1.

However, the following are not linear equations:

• y = x^2 + 1 (The degree of x is 2)
• xy = 4 (The variables x and y are multiplied together, so this is not a linear equation in the traditional sense.)
• y = sqrt(x) (The degree of x is 1/2)

In summary, the degree of each variable in a linear equation is one, making the degree of the equation itself one. This characteristic ensures that the relationship between the variables can be represented by a straight line on a graph.