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Posts Tagged ‘slope’

Point-Slope Formula

Friday, September 11th, 2009

How to Use the Point-Slope Formula

Description

A detailed tutorial on the point-slope formula. Step by step tutorial including several examples of how to find the equation of a line using the point-slope formula for reference.

Overview

There are many different formulas for basic graphing, and one of these is the point-slope formula. As you may have guessed from the name, in order to use this formula you must already have the slope and a point on the line. This formula is used to find the equation of a line. This is the point-slope formula:

$y - y_0 = m(x - x_0).\!$

Where the variable m stands for the slope, $y - y_0$ stands for the y-intercept minus the y-coordinate of the point, and $x - x_0$ stands for the x-intercept minus the x-coordinate of the point.

Tags: algebra, equation of a line, graph, graphing, Math, point, point-slope formula, slope, x-coordinate, x-intercept, y-coordinate, y-intercept
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Slope Formula

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

How to Use the Slope Formula to Determine the Slope of a Line

Description

A detailed tutorial on the solving of Slope Formula. Step by step tutorial including several examples of how to solve Slope Formula for reference.

Overview

The slope formula is used to determine the rate of change between two points by drawing a straight line through the two points. In math the slope is usually represented by the letter \”m.\” The larger the slope, the steeper the line. A slope of zero would be a flat horizontal line while an infinite slope would result in a vertical line. This equation only works on straight lines.

Formal Definition:

Slope – the slope of a line in the plane containing the x and y axes defined as the change in the y coordinate divided by the corresponding change in the x coordinate between two distinct points on the line.

$m = \frac{\Delta{y}}{\Delta{x}}$

Δ is a symbol in math representing \”change\” or \”difference.\” If you have two points (x₁,y₁) and (x₂,y₂) then the slope formula would be represented as:

$m = \frac{y_2-y_1}{x_2-x_1}$

A common way to remember this formula is by remembering the saying \”Rise Over Run.\” The rise (up and down) would be the y-values on the top and the run (left and right) would be the x values on the bottom.

As you extend into geometry, slope can be used to determine if two lines are parrallel or perpindicular. Two lines are parallel if the slopes are equal. Two lines are are perpindicular if the second slope is the negative reciprocal of the first slope.

Using calculus you can calculate the slope of a curve. This process is called dirivation.

Tags: algebra, Geometry, Math, slope, slope formula
Posted in Algebra, Calculus, Geometry, Math | No Comments »

Slope-Intercept Form

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

How to Put Equations into Slope-Intercept Form

Description

This video explains how to solve equations and put them into the format y = mx + b so they can easily be graphed. It provides two examples of slightly different equations and shows how to put them into a slope-intercept form so you can graph the equations.

Overview

When graphing, you may be asked to graph an equation that looks like x + y = b. In order to graph this equation, it needs to be in the form of y = mx + b. This is called slope-intercept form. The slope of the line is represented by m, in the form of rise over run, and the y-intercept is represented by b. As in normal algebra problems, you will be required to add, subtract, or divide as neccessary to place the numbers and variables in their proper place.

Tags: algebra, graphing, graphs, intercepts, Math, rise over run, slope, slope-intercept form, y=mx+b
Posted in Algebra | 1 Comment »