Gradient of a straight line
The gradient tells us how steep a line is, therefore the bigger the gradient the steeper the line is.
A positive gradient is a straight line which slopes up to the right.
A negative gradient is a straight line which slopes down to the right.
The gradient formula with coordinates
The gradient of the line joining \(A({x_1},{y_1})\) to \(B({x_2},{y_2})\) is written \({m_{AB}}\).
\({m_{AB}} = \frac{{{y_2} - {y_1}}}{{{x_2} - {x_1}}}\)
More guides on this topic
- Circle geometry
- Calculating the volume of a standard solid
- Applying Pythagoras Theorem
- Applying the properties of shapes to determine an angle
- Using similarity
- Working with two-dimensional vectors
- Working with three-dimensional coordinates
- Using vector components
- Calculating the magnitude of a vector
- An Approximate History of Co-ordinates