Question

You are going up a road with a 5% grade.

You are going up___ feet every ___ feet horizontally.
the slope of the road is ___

Answer 1

The slope of the road is 5 feet every 100 feet horizontally, 1:20, or approximately 2.86 degrees.

A 5% grade means that for every 100 feet you travel horizontally, you also gain 5 feet in elevation.

Therefore, you are going up 5 feet every 100 feet horizontally.

Another way to express the slope is as a ratio of rise to run. In this case, the slope would be **1:20**, meaning for every 1 foot you go up, you also go 20 feet forward.

Finally, the slope can also be expressed as an angle. To calculate this, we can use the formula:

tan(angle) = rise / run

In this case, the angle would be:

tan(angle) = 5 / 100

angle = arctan(0.05)

angle ≈ 2.86 degrees