Re: Slope
Ed Laughbaum (elaughba@MATH.OHIO-STATE.EDU)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 14:32:39 -0400
With all this discussion of "slope" again, I am reminded that when you
teach mathematics in the context of real-world problems, you 'never' see
the word slope. It is always expressed as a rate of change. Because of
this, I only use the word slope for the one or two days we actually study
the old traditional topics related to linear functions. At all other times
I ask for and discuss the rate of change of one quantity with respect to
another. Of course, the quantities vary from problem to problem. Sometimes
we (the class) may even go so far as to ask how fast y is changing with
respect to x -- what traditionalist we are.
Ed Laughbaum