The slope of a line characterizes the general direction in which a line points. Slope is used to describe the steepness, incline, gradient, or grade of a straight line. A higher slope value indicates a steeper incline.To find the slope, you divide the difference in the y-coordinates of two points on a line by the difference in the x-coordinates.
- Formula to find the slope of a line: SLOPE = change in Y / change in X
- Every straight line has a consistent slope. In other words, the slope of a line never changes. This fundamental idea means that you can choose ANY two points on a line to find the slope. This should intuitively make sense with your own understanding of a straight line. After all, if the slope of a line could change, then it would be a zigzag line and not a straight line.
- Slope of vertical and horizontal lines
- The slope of a vertical line is undefined . This is because any vertical line has a change in x or "run" of zero. Whenever zero is the denominator of the fraction in this case of the fraction representing the slope of a line, the fraction is undefined
- The slope of a horizontal line is zero. This is because any horizontal line has a change in Y or "rise" of zero. Therefore, regardless of what the run is (provided its' not also zero!), the fraction representing slope has a zero in its numerator. Therefore, the slope must evaluate to zero.
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