ShmoopTube

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Intercepts, a la Shmoop. You may have noticed that algebra "loves"

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lower case letters . . .

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. . . especially these guys.

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We're not sure why anyone would be so crazy about a couple...

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...with such blatant identity issues. . .

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. . . but they're clearly the stars of the show.

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Nowhere is their popularity more evident than here at the x and y axes...

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. . . where points are vying for a favorable position.

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In fact, these guys are so popular . . .

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. . . they've got their own paper.

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Something they don't want anyone to forget. But, just for a second, let's not call them

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x or y.

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For the purpose of this exercise, let's say x is the goal line for The Chicago Bears . . .

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. . . and y, hmmm, let's make y... The Green Bay Packers.

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If you think about numbers. . .

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. . .the way those teams think about footballs. . .

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. . .intercepts become pretty simple. The x intercept is where a line crosses the

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x axis. . .

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. . .and the y intercept is wherever the line crosses the y axis.

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Just like a pick six in football. . .

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. . .where only the team catching the interception scores. . .

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. . .the x intercept for any line is wherever y=0. . .

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. . .and the y intercept for any line is wherever x=0.

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Okay, guys...

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. . . you can

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go back to being x and y again. But, do us a favor. . .

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. . .try not to give us such a hard time in the future.

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