To find the equation of a straight line we need two things, the gradient of the line and a point lying on the line. To find the gradient of this line we use the gradient formula: m = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) = (2-5)/(8-7) = -3/1 = -3 Now that we have found the gradient, we can plug this value into the general equation of a straight line: y-b = m(x-a). We can use either of our two points in this formula, (7,5) or (8,2). I will use the former: y-5 = -3(x-7) y-5 = -3x + 21 y = -3x +26 This is our final answer.