Finding the Slope of a Line

Description

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

Overview

Finding slope isn’t all that difficult. The slope of a line is the numerical expression of the slant of a line on a graph. The slope is represented by the letter m and is written in the format of rise over run – in other words, from point to point, how many spaces up the line goes and how many spaces over. Negative numbers are used if the slope runs either down or to the left instead of up and to the right. If the graph is already provided, the slope can be found by counting. But the correct way to find slope is to use a formula.

m = (change in y) / (change in x)

In order to use this formula, you need to have two points on the line. The change in x is the first x-coordinate minus the second x-coordinate, and the change in y is the first y-coordinate minus the second y-coordinate. The equations in the numerator and denominator are solved seperately and will form one fraction, which will be the slope.