Question

A ski slope drops 40 feet for every horizontal 90 feet. Find the slope?

Answer 1

`-4/9`

Explanation:

Verbally interpreted, the slope is "rise over run." More precisely, it's the vertical change divided by the horizontal change.

Here, we don't really have a "rise," but rather a descent of `40` feet. This would be our vertical change. Our horizontal change, the problem tells us, is `90` feet.

Thus, `Slope=(rise)/(run)=-40/90=-4/9`

Note that since we're dropping and not rising, we label our vertical change of `40` feet as negative.