Question

You are at the very top of the mountain and are given two choices for

routes to the bottom. The first route has an equation y = -2x + 10,
and the second route has an equation y = - 5x + 10. Which of the two
routes presents the steepest journey down the mountain?

Answer 1

y = - 5x + 10 is the steeper route down

Explanation:

The equations y = -2x + 10 and y = - 5x + 10 are written in slope-intercept form, which is y = mx + b. In this formula, m is the slope, and b is the y intercept.

Slope is the rate of change (steepness)

Y-intercept is where the line is at x = 0 (The peak of the mountain)

Since we only need to look at the slope, we can ignore the + 10.

-5x is significantly "steeper" than -2x