The equation y = -4x + 1 is linear because it describes a straight-line relationship between x and y.
In a linear equation, the variable x appears to the first power (not in an exponent), and the equation follows the format y = mx + b, where m represents the slope (the rate of change) and b is the y-intercept (the value of y when x is 0).
Here, -4 is the slope, indicating that for each increase of 1 in x, y decreases by 4. The 1 is the y-intercept, which is where the line crosses the y-axis.
Exponential functions would involve the variable x in the exponent, such as