Finding The Gradient Of A Line On A Graph

This lesson covers:

  1. What we mean by the term 'gradient'
  2. The different ways we can find the gradient from a graph

What does the gradient of a line tell us?

Where the line intersects the y-axis

How steep the line is

How long the line is

How high the line is

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Which of these two lines has the higher gradient?

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When deciding whether a line slopes up or down, do we follow the line from left-to-right, or right-to-left?

Right-to-left

Left-to-right

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The simplest way to find the gradient of a line is to figure out how much the line goes up or down by, each time it goes across by one. Using this technique, what is the gradient on the line below? 

Graph showing a line with a positive gradient on a coordinate plane.
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Graph showing the rise and run between two points A and B used to find the gradient of a line.

The above graph shows the rise and the run between two points A and B. 


Use this information & the formula below to find the gradient of the line.

(Give your answer as a decimal)

Gradient = run rise
0.4

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Graph showing the rise and run between two points A and B used to find the gradient of the line.

The above graph shows the rise and the run between two points A and B. 


Use this information to find the gradient of the line.

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Graph showing a line with a negative gradient.

What is the gradient of the line on the graph above?

-\frac{2}{3}|0.67|0.667|\frac{-2}{3}

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