This week in math ten we learned about slope. I think I had been briefly introduced to this last year but we never went into a lot of detail about it. First slope is represented by the letter M not S and the main way to calculate it by using a graph is by using the formula rise/run. Rise and Run is used to look at how much the slope is going up by on the vertical axis and how much it changes on the horizontal axis. when you connect these dots they should make a diagonal line and if they don’t there are some other options like if there in a straight horizontal line than that means the Y value is equal to zero and if it’s in a straight line on the vertical axis it’s undefined. If the rise goes down it’s negative and if it goes up positive.  if the run goes to the left it’s negative and to the right positive.

You can always figure out the slope of a line if you have 2 points. If you are not given 2 points, you can find 2 points on the graph and use them to find the slope.

Here are some good things to know:
– m = slope
– (x₁, y₁) = point 1
– (x₂, y₂) = point 2
– rise = the difference in the y-values (y₂ – y₁)
– run= the difference in the x-values (x₂ – x₁)

x₁ = 4 and x₂ = 6
y₁ = 2 and y₂ = 1

Now we just need to plug these values into the slope formula:

m = rise / run
= (y₂ – y₁) / (x₂ – x₁)
= (1 – 2) / (6 – 4)
= (-1) / 2
= -1/2

So the slope (m) is -1/2.