Lines and the Coordinate Plane: Slope of a Line

Slope of a Line: Introduction

Man skiing down a mountain

You are probably familiar with a ski slope, and perhaps you’ve even been skiing yourself.  The slope of the hill is a measure of the level of its incline.  In geometry, we can measure the incline of lines on a plane in much the same way.

When we measure the slope of a line, we are measuring its rate of change.  That is, how much the line changes vertically versus horizontally?  In this section, you will learn more about the mathematical definition of slope.