Question

Emma calculated the slope of the downhill hike to be -1/40 her work is shown below determine whether her calculation was correct or incorrect and then explain why

Answer 1

The calculation is incorrect, because the slope is defined as

$m_{AB} = \dfrac{y_A-y_B}{x_A-x_B}$

So, Emma has inverted numerator and denominator: she has calculated the inverse of the slope.

The correct calculation would be

$\dfrac{300-900}{180-165} = \dfrac{-600}{15} = -40$