Overview of Negative Slopes

A detailed tutorial on negative slopes. Step by step tutorial including several example problems with negative slopes for reference.

A negative slope is very similar to a positive slope. It is still in the form of rise over run, and it makes no real difference in an equation if a slope is negative or positive. What it does is change the way you graph it. A positive slope you go up and the to the right. In a negative slope, you will either go up and to the left or down and to the right, depending on if the rise or the run is negative. The main mistake that people make with a negative slope is thinking if they see a negative sign, the slope is definitely negative. This is not true. A negative rise and a negative run actually equals a positive slope, you graph it as going down and going to the left, which still creates a positive slope – and in mathematics, two negatives make a positive.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites