Question

What is the height if the slope is 15% and the length is 5 meters?

Answer 1

0.75 meters

Explanation:

Let's assume that the length starts at 0 height. A slope of 15% can be written as 0.15. The equation of a straight line, in slope-intercept form, is y = mx + b, where m is the slope and b is the value of y when x = 0.

We can write y = 0.15x + b.

Since the length starts at 0 and is at 0 elevation, it is also the y-intercept. At x = 0 (the start of the line), y is also 0. So b = 0:

y = 0.15x + 0 or just y = 0.15x

At x = 5 meters, we have:

y = 0.15x

y = 0.15(5 meters)

y (height) = 0.75 meters