Thursday 17 January 2013

Slope

What is slope? If you have ever walked up or down a hill, then you have already experienced a real life example of slope

As you go up hill, you may feel like you are spending lots of energy to get yourself to move.

The steeper the hill, the harder it is for you to keep yourself moving


Positive-slope-image


Keeping this fact in mind, by definition, the slope is the measure of the steepness of a line.

In real life, we see slope in any direction. However, in math, slope is defined from left to right.

I repeat we always measure slope going from left to right. This is very important!

There are three types of slope you can encounter. A slope can be positive, negative, or equal to zero. When the slope is equal to zero, we say that there is no slope

A positive slope:

If you go from left to right and you go up, it it a positive slope



Positive-slope-image


A negative slope:

If you go from left to right and you go down, it it a negative slope



Negative-slope-image


A zero slope:

If you go from left to right and you don't go up or down, it it a zero slope

Negative-slope-image


The lesson about slope of a line or how to find the slope will explain what it means for a slope to ne positive, negative, or zero mathematically.

Continue your study of slope here in order

How to find the slope
Learn how to compute the slope using the rise and the run or 2 points

Undefined slope
A thorough explanation of what it means for a slope to be undefined

Graphing slope
Learn how to graph the slope using the slope and a point

Slope intercept form
Learn how to graph the slope using the slope and a point

Slope calculator
Given two points, this calculator will calculate the slope and the slope intercept form of a line

Related topics

Midpoint of a line segment
Find out how to find the midpoint of a line segment using the midpoint formula

Direct variation
A couple of real life examples of direct variation explained

Domain of a function

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