Example: Calculating the Slope of a Straight Line

In the unit on Slope, you learned to calculate the slope of a line. If you wish to review this unit, click on this link: Calculating Slope

What is the slope of the line on the graph at the right?

As you should recall, to find the slope of a line you need to:

  1. Step One: Identify two points on the line.
  2. Step Two: Select one to be (x1, y1) and the other to be (x2, y2).
  3. Step Three: Use the slope equation to calculate slope.

When we calculate the slope of a stright line it doesn't matter what pair of points we use to calculate the slope.

The coordinates for point A are (0, 1); the coordinates for B are (1, 2). Using these points, the slope is:

Now let's use points C & D. The coordinates for point C are (2, 3); the coordinates for D are (3, 4). The slope using these points is also:

For both calculations we got the same slope of 1. We would get a slope of 1 with any two points on the line; the slope of a straight line is constant. If you feel you need more review that this, click on this link: Calculating Slope


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