SOLUTION: 1. Technology. Driving down a mountain, Tom finds that he has descended 1800 ft in elevation by the time he is 3.25 mi horizontally away from the top of the mountain. Find the sl

Question 120638: 1. Technology. Driving down a mountain, Tom finds that he has descended 1800 ft
in elevation by the time he is 3.25 mi horizontally away from the top of the
mountain. Find the slope of his descent to the nearest hundredth.

Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
#1

First convert 3.25 mi into feet

So 3.25 miles is equivalent to 17,160 feet

Lets draw a picture to see whats going on:

Remember, the slope is the "rise" (which is the height) over the "run" (which is the base)
So the slope is

note: since we are descending the rise is negative. So the "rise" is really a descent

Now reduce the fraction to

So the slope is

Now if you want it in decimal form, simply divide 15 by 143 like this

which to the nearest hundredth is

So the slope of his descent is roughly

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