You can
put this solution on YOUR website!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.
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slope = change in vertical height / change of horizontal position
slope = 1800 ft / 3.25 mi
slope = 1800 ft / [(3.35)(5280)] ft
slope = 0.102
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Cheers,
Stan H.
You can
put this solution on YOUR website!Draw a picture of a right-triangle.
1800 feet is the height of the triangle, meaning from the top of mountain to where Tom stop.
3.25 mile is the slant of the triangle.
So what you can imagine is that Tom is coming down the slant. When travelled 3.25 miles from the top, he's decended 1800 ft.
********* Step #1: Use

to find all sides of the triangle
Where a=1800 ft and c=3.25 miles.
(Note: 1 miles = 5280 feet; so 3.25 miles is 17160 ft.)

becomes

becomes

********* Step #2: Solving slope of decent
slope = Rise/Run.
In this case our Rise=1800; Run=17065
becomes