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The curve of fastest descent is not a straight or polygonal line (blue) but a cycloid (red).. In physics and mathematics, a brachistochrone curve (from Ancient Greek βράχιστος χρόνος (brákhistos khrónos) ' shortest time '), [1] or curve of fastest descent, is the one lying on the plane between a point A and a lower point B, where B is not directly below A, on which a bead ...
Slope illustrated for y = (3/2)x − 1.Click on to enlarge Slope of a line in coordinates system, from f(x) = −12x + 2 to f(x) = 12x + 2. The slope of a line in the plane containing the x and y axes is generally represented by the letter m, [5] and is defined as the change in the y coordinate divided by the corresponding change in the x coordinate, between two distinct points on the line.
Given two different points (x 1, y 1) and (x 2, y 2), there is exactly one line that passes through them. There are several ways to write a linear equation of this line. If x 1 ≠ x 2, the slope of the line is . Thus, a point-slope form is [3]
The simplest is the slope-intercept form: = +, from which one can immediately see the slope a and the initial value () =, which is the y-intercept of the graph = (). Given a slope a and one known value () =, we write the point-slope form:
If f(x) is a real-valued function and a and b are numbers with a < b, then the mean value theorem says that under mild hypotheses, the slope between the two points (a, f(a)) and (b, f(b)) is equal to the slope of the tangent line to f at some point c between a and b. In other words,
The ratio in the definition of the derivative is the slope of the line through two points on the graph of the function , specifically the points (, ()) and (+, (+)). As h {\displaystyle h} is made smaller, these points grow closer together, and the slope of this line approaches the limiting value, the slope of the tangent to the graph of ...
For example, for any two distinct points, there is a unique line containing them, and any two distinct lines intersect at most at one point. [1]: 300 In two dimensions (i.e., the Euclidean plane), two lines that do not intersect are called parallel.
A simple two-point estimation is to compute the slope of a nearby secant line through the points (x, f(x)) and (x + h, f(x + h)). [1] Choosing a small number h, h represents a small change in x, and it can be either positive or negative. The slope of this line is (+) ().