Blog 4 Assignment- Be the Professor

Topic: Finding Slope

Hi Students! Today we will be learning about slope! Before we begin, does anyone have any ideas what slope is? …

So slope is also known as the gradient or the incline, it’s used to measure the steepness of the straight line. The higher the slope, the steeper the line is.

To find the slope we will need to use the formula: change in y over change in x or

     

Slope is not only used in math classes but it is also can be related to real life situation.  For example when constructing ramps, finding slope of the hill before trekking. Skiers and snowboarders also need to know the slope of the mountain before skiing or snowboarding down so that they are aware of the speeds and the dangers.  See students finding slope is very useful and important in real life situations!

Now lets apply the formula to the given question.  “What is the slope of a line that goes through the points (12,6) and (8,10)”?

Lets break this through step by step

1)Use the formula 

2)Identify the x and y value so it would be

(12=x_1, 6= y₂)   (8=x_2, 10=x₂)

3) Plug in the values into the formula

4) So the slope is -1

We can also apply the formula to a real life situation. For example, Andrew has 4 gallons of petrol in his car and after driving 100 miles he had 2 gallons left. We can plot this information into a graph to find the slope of the line.

1)   Use this equation 

2)   Plug the value into the formula 

3)   This tells us that the car uses 0.2 gallons very miles it travels. As it’s a negative value it shows that the amount of gasoline is decreasing.

Applying this formula to real life situation is very useful as people can determine how much the slope is, for example in the gasoline example, Andrew knows that every miles he travels he uses 0.2 gallons. Again finding slope can be applied to many situations. Students do you now understand why finding slopes is helpful in real life situation?