Elevation and Slope

[MathBane]

For purposes of this exercise, we will think of the Mississippi River as a straight line beginning at its headwaters, Lake Itasca, Minnesota, at an elevation of 1475 feet above sea level, and sloping downward to the Gulf of Mexico 2340 miles to the south. (Round your answers to two decimal places.)

(a) Think of the southern direction as pointing right along the horizontal axis. What is the slope of the line representing the Mississippi River?

____ ft/mi

(I've tried putting: 1475, 2340, 0.63, 1.59... all of them wrong.)

(b) Memphis, Tennessee, sits on the Mississippi River 1982 miles south of Lake Itasca. What is the elevation of the river as it passes Memphis?

(Going to the table in the calculator at entry 1982 would find this, right?)

(c) How many miles south of Lake Itasca would you find the elevation of the Mississippi to be 600 feet?

(Putting 600 in \(\displaystyle Y_2\) would solve this, right?)

But in order for any of those to work... I need to know the equation... and I can't even find the slope. As always, thanks for all of your help.

 

[Deleted member 4993]

For purposes of this exercise, we will think of the Mississippi River as a straight line beginning at its headwaters, Lake Itasca, Minnesota, at an elevation of 1475 feet above sea level, and sloping downward to the Gulf of Mexico 2340 miles to the south. (Round your answers to two decimal places.)

(a) Think of the southern direction as pointing right along the horizontal axis. What is the slope of the line representing the Mississippi River?

____ ft/mi

Assume the elevation of gulf of Mexico = 0 - also assume it is the origin

Then you are drawing a straight line between (0,0) and (2340,1475)

You know how to find the slope now - right?

(I've tried putting: 1475, 2340, 0.63, 1.59... all of them wrong.)

(b) Memphis, Tennessee, sits on the Mississippi River 1982 miles south of Lake Itasca. What is the elevation of the river as it passes Memphis?

(Going to the table in the calculator at entry 1982 would find this, right?)

(c) How many miles south of Lake Itasca would you find the elevation of the Mississippi to be 600 feet?

(Putting 600 in \(\displaystyle Y_2\) would solve this, right?)

But in order for any of those to work... I need to know the equation... and I can't even find the slope. As always, thanks for all of your help.

 

[mmm4444bot]

?

Think of the southern direction as pointing right along the horizontal axis.

I'm concerned that this ambiguous phrase is supposed to mean "pointing to the right, along" the horizontal axis.

That would put the headwaters of the MIssissippi at coordinates (0, 1475), leading to coordinates (2340, 0) for the Gulf of Mexico, giving negative slope for the line that represents this river.


?

 

[MathBane]

...Crap! I forgot that the slope was going downwards. I got -0.63 and that was right. Thanks guys!