Question

What is the slope of the line passing through the points `(- 1,7)` and `(3,- 6)`?

Answer 1

`m=-13/4`

Explanation:

You want to use the formula `m=(Deltay)/(Deltax)`. Since `Deltay=y_2-y_1` and `Deltax=x_2-x_1`, you can substitute that in.

Now, `m=(y_2-y_1)/(x_2-x_1)`.

Each point you were given is one part of that equation. Let's say the first point is `(x_1, y_1)` and the second point is `(x_2, y_2)`. Then, we can plug those values into our equation to get:

`m=(-6-7)/(3--1)`

Simply solving for `m`, we get:

`m=-13/4`