Question

What is slope and how is it determined from a graph?

Answer 1

Pick a point on the line, and count its distance from the x line; then count its distance from the y line. When you got the results divide the first one to the second one. The result is your slope.

If you have the graph’s equation, you can convert it to the form of y=mx+b. After the convertion the letter m represents the slope of the graph.

Answer 2

Think of a straight line that heads up as x increases. By how much does y increase as x increases by 1? The answer is the "slope" of the line, also referred to as the "rate of change of y with respect to x," and calculated by using the formula

rise

m = slope = ---------

run

If you're starting with such a straight line graph on a grid (consisting of horizontal and vertical lines, all equally spaced), try to identify a point on the line that goes exactly through the intersection of one horiz. and one vertical line from this grid. If, for example, the vertical line represents x=2 and the horiz. line represents y =3, then the point on the line would be (2,3). Try to identify one other point on the line and to identify its coordinates similarly.

By how much does x change? That's the "run." Write that number in the denominator of the fraction

m = rise / run. By how much does y change? That's the "rise." Write that number in the numerator of the fraction.

Then you have the slope of the straight line, m = rise / run.

This procedure is only slightly harder if the line descends instead of ascends as x increases.