Question

The land at the south shore of Long island rises in elevation by 1 foot if you travel 1000 feet away from the shore. What is the slope of the land here expressed as the tangent of its angle? What is this slope in degrees? What is the percent grade?

Answer 1

The slope of the land at the south shore of Long Island is 0.001, equivalent to about 0.057 degrees or a 0.1% grade.

Step-by-step explanation:

The land at the south shore of Long Island has a slope that can be calculated by finding the tangent of its angle, which is equivalent to the 'rise over run.'

In this case, the rise is 1 foot and the run is 1000 feet, which means the slope, or the tangent of the angle, is 0.001.

This is a very small angle which, when converted to degrees, is approximately 0.057 degrees.

Since the percent grade is the rise over run multiplied by 100 to convert to a percentage, the grade here is 0.1%.