# From Translations to Slope

If not before, students in 8th grade learn that a translation is a rigid motion that “slides” a point or set of points a certain distance. An important idea here that could stand to be emphasized a lot more is that the translations students study are linear translations—the translations move the set of points along a line. When this is understood prior to looking at slope, it can help with a deeper understanding of slope.

We can see the start of this in action when we play with the simulation below. Type positive numbers less than ten and greater than zero (3 characters max) into the blank boxes and then click on the arrow boxes to set the directions. This will create a translation sequence starting at (0, 0). For example, 9 ↑ 3 ← will continuously translate a point up 9 and left 3 (until it goes out of view). Click on the coordinate plane to run the sequence.

When the sequence is finished, a button should appear that allows you to click to show the line along which the point was translated using a repetition of the translation sequence. Click Clear to draw a new translation sequence (or repeat the one you just did). You can watch a (near) infinite loop if you’d like to put in things like 8 ↑ 8 ↓.

What Is Slope?

The example at right shows a finished sequence of repeated $$\mathtt{(x – 4, y + 6)}$$. There’s a whole lot to unpack here, which I won’t do. But, playing around with linear translations in this way can eventually reveal that the vertical and horizontal displacements form a ratio. For example, one can say that for every vertical move up 6 $$\mathtt{(+6)}$$, there is a horizontal move left 4 $$\mathtt{(-4)}$$. This simplifies to 3 : –2, and you can extend the sequence into the 4th quadrant to show that this is the same line as –3 : 2.

Referring to lines in terms of their slope ratios is pretty close to the finish line as far as slope understanding.

Y = Mx + B

We can ask about the corresponding y-value for an x-value of 5. The answer to this becomes the solution to a proportion, which we can generalize: $\mathtt{\frac{\color{white}{-}3}{-2} = \frac{y}{5} \quad \rightarrow \quad \frac{\color{white}{-}3}{-2} = \frac{y}{x}}$

So, we can arrive at $$\mathtt{y = -\frac{3}{2}x}$$. By this point, the slope ratio is ready for a special letter, and we can move up to the slope-intercept form. There are all kinds of catches and surprises in this development: zeros, the final b translation of the entire line, etc. But it is certainly an interesting connection between geometry and algebra for middle school, the key idea being that translations always move points along a straight line.

These ideas can essentially run alongside ratio development too, regardless whether the notion of translations is developed formally (there’s not much formality to it, even in 8th grade) or informally. See the Guzinta Math: Comparing Ratios lesson app for some more ideas about connections.