Answer:
Remember: RISE/RUN (y/x). Lines that are increasing have a positive slope, and lines that are decreasing have a negative slope.
You can find the slope in two ways:
1. Useful if the line is graphed: count the units between 2 points on the line.
- Let's use the points (-1, 4) and (4, -4).
- (-1, 4) is 8 units higher than (4, -4) and 5 units to the left of (4, -4).
- Because the line is decreasing, the slope is negative.
- Therefore, the slope is
.
2. Useful if the line is not graphed: find the difference between the y-coordinate values divided by the difference of the x-coordinate values.
- Let's use the points (-1, 4) and (4, -4).
- Therefore, the slope is