SOLUTION: Driving down a mountain ,Tom finds that he has descended 1800 ft in elevation by the time he is 3.25 miles horizontally away from the top of the mountain. Find the slope of his de
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Question 120553: Driving down a mountain ,Tom finds that he has descended 1800 ft in elevation by the time he is 3.25 miles horizontally away from the top of the mountain. Find the slope of his descent to the nearest hundredth. Answer by nabla(475) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! First, note the general formula for a slope :
This means that a slope gives the change in y with respect to the
change in x. We use to mean "change."
Now,
In the example, we have the starting point of (0,
0) and end point (3.25, -1800). It is key that you understand these two points. You start at a position where you have not moved at all (0,0). You then move to your second position which was given in the problem--- 3.25 horizontal change, 1800 negative change--- (3.25,-1800).
Plugging this into our equation for a slope :
which is approximately equal to
(