Find the Difference Quotient f(x)=-7x+4

$f (x) = - 7 x + 4$

Step 1

Consider the difference quotient formula.

$\frac{f (x + h) - f (x)}{h}$

Step 2

Find the components of the definition.

Evaluate the function at $x = x + h$ .

Replace the variable $x$ with $x + h$ in the expression.

$f (x + h) = - 7 (x + h) + 4$

Simplify the result.

Apply the distributive property.

$f (x + h) = - 7 x - 7 h + 4$

The final answer is $- 7 x - 7 h + 4$ .

$- 7 x - 7 h + 4$

Reorder $- 7 x$ and $- 7 h$ .

$- 7 h - 7 x + 4$

Find the components of the definition.

$f (x + h) = - 7 h - 7 x + 4$

$f (x) = - 7 x + 4$

$f (x + h) = - 7 h - 7 x + 4$

$f (x) = - 7 x + 4$

Step 3

Plug in the components.

$\frac{f (x + h) - f (x)}{h} = \frac{- 7 h - 7 x + 4 - (- 7 x + 4)}{h}$

Step 4

Simplify.

Simplify the numerator.

Apply the distributive property.

$\frac{- 7 h - 7 x + 4 - (- 7 x) - 1 \cdot 4}{h}$

Multiply $- 7$ by $- 1$ .

$\frac{- 7 h - 7 x + 4 + 7 x - 1 \cdot 4}{h}$

Multiply $- 1$ by $4$ .

$\frac{- 7 h - 7 x + 4 + 7 x - 4}{h}$

Add $- 7 x$ and $7 x$ .

$\frac{- 7 h + 0 + 4 - 4}{h}$

Add $- 7 h$ and $0$ .

$\frac{- 7 h + 4 - 4}{h}$

Subtract $4$ from $4$ .

$\frac{- 7 h + 0}{h}$

Add $- 7 h$ and $0$ .

$\frac{- 7 h}{h}$

Divide $- 7$ by $1$ .

$- 7$

Step 5