Summary: Identifying and Using Slope
ACCESS ADDITIONAL ONLINE RESOURCES
- Determine Positive slope from a Graph
- Determine Negative slope from a Graph
- Determine Slope from Two Points
Key Concepts
- Find the slope from a graph
- Locate two points on the line whose coordinates are integers.
- Starting with the point on the left, sketch a right triangle, going from the first point to the second point.
- Count the rise and the run on the legs of the triangle.
- Take the ratio of rise to run to find the slope, [latex]m=\frac{\text{rise}}{\text{run}}[/latex]
- Slope of a Horizontal Line
- The slope of a horizontal line, [latex]y=b[/latex] , is [latex]0[/latex].
- Slope of a Vertical Line
- The slope of a vertical line, [latex]x=a[/latex] , is undefined.
- Slope Formula
- The slope of the line between two points [latex]\left({x}_{1},{y}_{1}\right)[/latex] and [latex]\left({x}_{2},{y}_{2}\right)[/latex] is [latex]m=\frac{{y}_{2}-{y}_{1}}{{x}_{2}-{x}_{1}}[/latex]
- Graph a line given a point and a slope.
- Plot the given point.
- Use the slope formula to identify the rise and the run.
- Starting at the given point, count out the rise and run to mark the second point.
- Connect the points with a line.
Glossary
- slope of a line
- The slope of a line is [latex]m=\frac{\text{rise}}{\text{run}}[/latex] . The rise measures the vertical change and the run measures the horizontal change.
Licenses & Attributions
CC licensed content, Specific attribution
- Prealgebra. Provided by: OpenStax License: CC BY: Attribution. License terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected].