Question

What is the slope of the line that passes through (4, 5) and (8, -1)?

Answer 1

m = -3/2

Explanation:

The slope of a line is equivalent to the formula:

m = slope = rise/run =
`(y_(2)-y_(1))/(x_(2)-x_(1))`

Given the two coordinate pairs, we can label them accordingly.

In math, coordinate pairs are set up in a way that the x-coordinate is given first and the y-coordinate is given second.

Therefore, with this information, we can label the coordinate pairs with this info.

`(x_(1), y_(1))` and
`(x_(2), y_(2))` is the default labeling system for two coordinate pairs.

Then, we can use this information to label our coordinate pairs, place them into the slope formula, and solve for m.

`m=(-1-5)/(8-4)\\\\m = (-6)/(4)\\\\\boxed{m=-(3)/(2)}`