Slope of a Line at a Glance


What does the word "slope" make you think of? We start thinking about skiing down the Appalachians in a snazzy snowsuit and mirrored goggles. We're carving up the mountain, riding a wave of soft powder to the bottom, high-fiving mountain lions and bears as we pass them by. Good times.

The second thing we start thinking about is lines and graphing. The slope of a line measures the line’s steepness, just like the slope of a mountain measures its steepness. Now we're picturing ourselves skiing down the graph of a function.

Example 1

Use the graph below to find the slope.


Example 2

Find the slope of the line passing through (0, -0.5) and (1, -3.5).


Example 3

Find the slope between the points (1, 3) and (1, 4).


Example 4

Are the lines passing through these points parallel, perpendicular, or neither?

(1, 5) and (-1, 1)

(-1, -9) and (2, -3)


Exercise 1

Use the graph below to find the slope.


Exercise 2

Use the graph below to find the slope.


Exercise 3

Are the lines that pass through these points parallel, perpendicular, or neither?

(-2, -5) and (3, 5)

(1, 8) and (-3, -4)


Exercise 4

Are the lines that pass through these points parallel, perpendicular, or neither?

(-1, 5) and (0, 2)

(3, 1) and (0, 0)


Exercise 5

Are the lines that pass through these points parallel, perpendicular, or neither?

(1, 0) and (3, -2)

(-2, -2) and (1, -5)