How to find slope with similar triangles

3 answers

To find the slope of a line using similar triangles, you can use the rise over run method.

First, identify two points on the line and determine the coordinates of these two points. Let's call the coordinates of the first point (x₁, y₁) and the coordinates of the second point (x₂, y₂).

Then, calculate the rise and run by finding the difference in the y-coordinates and x-coordinates of the two points:

Rise = y₂ - y₁
Run = x₂ - x₁

Next, find the ratio of the rise to the run:

Slope = Rise/Run

This will give you the slope of the line passing through the two points.
What if there is 4 points, (0,0) (1,4) (2,8) (3, 12)
To find the slope of the line passing through the four points (0,0), (1,4), (2,8), and (3,12), you can use the same method of calculating the rise over run using similar triangles.

Let's consider the points (0,0) and (1,4) for our calculation.

Rise = y₂ - y₁ = 4 - 0 = 4
Run = x₂ - x₁ = 1 - 0 = 1

Therefore, the slope between the points (0,0) and (1,4) is:

Slope = Rise/Run = 4/1 = 4

You can repeat this process for any other pair of points to verify that the slope remains the same for all pairs of points. In this case, the slope of the line passing through the four points is 4.