A line through the origin and (10,4) is shown in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane below. The acute angle between the line and the positive x-axis has measure θ. What is the value of tan θ?
Question
A line through the origin and (10,4) is shown in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane below. The acute angle between the line and the positive x-axis has measure θ. What is the value of tan θ?
Solution
The line passes through the origin (0,0) and the point (10,4). The slope of the line is given by the change in y divided by the change in x, or (4-0)/(10-0) = 4/10 = 0.4.
In a right triangle, the tangent of an angle is equal to the opposite side divided by the adjacent side. In this case, the angle θ is the angle between the positive x-axis and the line, so the "opposite" side is the change in y (or the rise) and the "adjacent" side is the change in x (or the run).
Therefore, the value of tan θ is equal to the slope of the line, which is 0.4.
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