need help with Slopes?

Question

i know nothing about slopes.....
1-what is a slope?
2- how do i find the slope of a line
3- what is vertical and horizontal change

i'm expected to learn this and tutor to 7th graders, help!
how can i explain slopes and how to solve to a young person?

Answer 1

1. A slope is just a way of describing the angle a line makes with some reference (usually the horizontal) by resolving it into components (usually x and y, or horizontal and vertical).

2. The slope is usually given by rise/run. Over a given distance, a line will rise (or change in the vertical, or y, direction) a certain amount. Find that and divide by the run (change in the horizontal, or x, direction). An example:

Find the slope of a line passing through the points (4, 8) and (2, 3).

Answer: The rise = 3 - 8 = -5. (It falls from 8 to 3 on the y axis). The run = 2 - 4 = -2 (it goes backwards from 4 to 2 on the x axis). -5 / -2 = 2.5. So, the slope = 2.5

Notice that this is a simple line that rises as you go across the page from left to right. We ordered the points "wrong", putting the point on the right first, and then the point on the left second. However, doing the math correctly gave us the correct result: a positive slope.

It's possible to have a negative slope, that would be a line that heads down toward the horizontal. A simple example would be a line through (2, 8) and (4, 3). That would have a slope of -2.5

3. The vertical and horizontal change...I think I've pretty much covered this. See 2 above.

Answer 2

slopes are sooo easy!! simply put, slope is the number (ratio of rise over run: y/x) that indicates the slant of the graph of an equation or function at a particular location.

simply follow this equation to help you! y=mx+b : y is the y axis of the line, m is the slope, x is the x axis of the line, and b is the place where the line intercepts the y axis. this you can use to find the slope of a line.

sorry, but i'm not quite sure about vertical and horizontal changes! but i hope this helped!