Question

Describe the slope of the demand curve? How does the slope reflect the law of demand?

Answer 1

Answer:

• 1. The slope is negative

• 2. The demand decreases when the prices increase.

Explanation:

Describe the slope of the demand curve?

The slope of the demand curve is negative.

The demand curve is graphed on a coordinate plane with the price in the horizontal axis (typically the x-axis) and the demand on the vertical axis (y-axis).

Thus, the slope will be the rate of change of the demand over the change on the price.

Mathematically:

           $slope=\dfrac{\text{change in demand}}{\text{change in price}}$

Since, as you move from left to right, on the x-axis, the prices increase, and the demand (on the y-axis) lowers, the change in demand is negative and the change in the prices is positive, resulting in a negative slope.

This is seen graphycally because the demand curve is decreasing (downward-sloping).

How does the slope reflect the law of demand?

The slope reflects perfectly the law of demand because the law of demand states that, since the resources are scarce, when the prices incrases the quantities demanded decrease.