A student was asked to find the slope of the line through the points (4,8) and (-3,5). His answer, [tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex], was incorrect. He showed his work as [tex]\frac{5-8}{4-(-3)}[/tex]=[tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex]=[tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex].
What went wrong? Give the correct slope.

Given the following question:

Point A = (4, 8) = (x1, y1)
Point B = (-3, 5) = (x2, y2)

In order to find the slope any two points given we use the formula to find slope or rise/run.

[tex]m=\frac{y2-y1}{x2-x1}[/tex]
[tex]m=\frac{5-8}{-3-4} =\frac{-3}{-7}[/tex]
[tex]m=\frac{-3}{-7}[/tex]

The reason why the students answer is incorrect because he substituted incorrectly. More specifically the run part of the formula for slope. The formula for slope goes x2 - x1 which means it should be -3 - 4, not -4 - 3, which will give you the answer -7.

Hope this helps.

A student was asked to find the slope of the line through the points (4,8) and (-3,5). His answer, [tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex], was incorrect. He showed his work as [tex]\frac{5-8}{4-(-3)}[/tex]=[tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex]=[tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex]. What went wrong? Give the correct slope.

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A student was asked to find the slope of the line through the points (4,8) and (-3,5). His answer, [tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex], was incorrect. He showed his work as [tex]\frac{5-8}{4-(-3)}[/tex]=[tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex]=[tex]-\frac{3}{7}[/tex].
What went wrong? Give the correct slope.