What is the distance formula and the formula for slope?

Question

im not looking for speed, and for the points just use x and y

I seem to remember some y=mx+b that had something to do with slope....what is that?

oh yes diane I wasnt meaning you, I just had forgotten to put that before and when you posted it reminded me to put it for future answerers

Answer 1

You need two points for both. We'll use (x1, y1) and (x2, y2).

The Distance Formula is a variant of the Pythagorean Theorem:

d = sqrt((x2 - x1)^2 + (y2 - y1)^2)

The slope formula is sometimes referred to as "rise over run":

m = (y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1)

Edit: I can't just use "x and y" for the points. Every point in a two-dimensional coordinate system has to have two numbers associated with it. In a Cartesian plane, those numbers are generally called (x, y). So, for point 1 we use (x1, y1). For point 2 we use (x2, y2).

The "y = mx + b" you refer to is called the slope/intercept form for the equation for a line. In this form, the m is the slope of the line and the b is the y coordinate of the y-intercept. The actual formula for calculating slope is what I cited above.

Answer 2

Speed = Distance / Time

Slope = Rise (y) / Run (x)