Question

1. Molly says the slope of this line is equal to 1/3.

2. Brian says you can not find the slope of the line when there is a dot that is not plotted perfectly on the intersection of the graph.

Explain who is correct or if neither of them are correct.

Answer 1

Molly is correct. The slope of a line can be determined as long as you have two distinct points on the line.

Molly is correct. The slope of a line can be determined as long as you have two distinct points on the line. It doesn't matter if there are dots not perfectly on the intersection or any other point on the graph.

The slope is a measure of the steepness of the line and is calculated using the change in the vertical coordinates divided by the change in the horizontal coordinates.

If Molly has two points (let's say
`\((x_1, y_1)\)` and
`\((x_2, y_2)\)`) on the line and calculates the slope as
`\(m = \frac{{y_2 - y_1}}{{x_2 - x_1}}\)`, and if this equals
`\(1/3\)`, then she has correctly determined the slope of the line.

Brian's statement is not accurate. The presence of a dot not perfectly on the intersection or any other point on the graph does not prevent us from finding the slope of the line, as long as we have at least two points.