What describes the slope of a line that descends to the right on a coordinate grid?
Mathematics · Middle School · Mon Jan 18 2021
Answered on
The slope of a line that descends to the right on a coordinate grid is described as a negative slope. In more detail, if you were to pick two points on this line and determine the slope by calculating the change in y (the vertical change) over the change in x (the horizontal change), you would find that as the line moves to the right (increasing x values), the y values decrease.
Mathematically, slope (m) is calculated as:
m = (change in y) / (change in x) = (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1)
If (x2 > x1) and (y2 < y1), which occurs when the line descends to the right, then (y2 - y1) will be a negative number, and so the slope m will be negative.