Question

Find the slope of the line through the pair of points: (no spaces in your fractions or signs) M(7, 2), N(-1, 3)

Answer 1

`-(1)/(8)` =
`-0.125`

Explanation:

Step One: Identify two points on the line.

In this problem we are given two points M(7, 2) and N(-1, 3)

Step Two: Select one to be (x1, y1) and the other to be (x2, y2).

It doesn't matter which we choose, so let's take M(7, 2) to be (x1, y1) and N(-1, 3) to be the point (x2, y2)

Step Three: Use the equation to calculate slope.

Once we've completed step 2, we are ready to calculate the slope using the equation for a slope:

`(y2-y1)/(x2-x1) = (3-2)/(-1-7) =(1)/(-8)`
`= -(1)/(8)`

We said that it really doesn't matter which point we choose as (x1, y1) and the which to be (x2, y2). Let's show that this is true. Take the same two points (7, 2) and (-1,3) and this time we will calculate the slope using (7, 2) as (x2, y2) and (-1,3) as (x1, y1)

`slope = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) =(2-3)/(7-(-1)) =(-1)/(8)`
`= -(1)/(8)`

We get the same answer as before!