Detailed Solution to Additional Practice Unit 3: Slope at the Point of Tangency

Detailed Solution to Additional Practice
Unit 3: Determining the Slope of a Curve at the Point of Tangency

Find the slope of the following curve at point B?

The straight line AC is tangent to the curve at point B. To calculate the slope of the curve at point B, you need to calculate the slope of line AC.

Step One: Identify two points on the line.
Two points are A (0, 8) and C (6, 0).

Step Two: Select one to be (x1, y1) and the other to be (x2, y2).
Let point A (0, 8) to be (x1, y1).
Let point C (6, 0) to be (x2, y2).
Step Three: Use the slope equation to calculate slope.
Using points A (0, 8) and B (6, 0), your calculations will look like:

If you feel comfortable with this material, move on to the next unit.

IMPORTANT: If you still do not understand how to calculate the slope of a point in a curve, you may need more review than is offered by this book. It may be helpful for you to review Book I, Part Two of this series. If you still have problems with this material, please speak with your professor for suggestions on how to get help.


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