Slope of a Line | MathHelp.com

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This lesson covers slope of a line. Students are asked to find the slope of a line given its graph. To find the slope of a line, students use the formula slope = rise over run. Problems involve lines with positive slopes, negative slopes, slopes that must be reduced, slopes of 0 (horizontal lines), and "no slopes"(vertical lines). Students also learn that the variable "m" is used to represent the slope of a line.

In Algebra, we use the word "slope" to describe how steep a line is, and the slope of a line can be found using the ratio rise over run between any two points that are on that line.

Since the slope of a line is a fraction, remember to reduce your slope if possible at the end of the problem.

The most common mistake made in problems involving the slope of a line is to mess up the sign. To avoid this mistake, we use the following ideas:

- The slope of a line that is going uphill from left to right is positive.

- The slope of a line that is going downhill from left to right is negative.

Note that the slope of a line that is horizontal (flat) is zero, and the slope of a line that is vertical (straight up and down) is 'no slope.'

The variable "m" is used to represent the slope of a line, so if the slope of a line is 2/3, then we say that m = 2/3.

The slope of a line is one of the first concepts that is introduced in the study of linear equations.

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