Posted by T.Gracken on October 01, 2002 at 11:19:33:
In Reply to: The slope of a line posted by Jason Healy on September 30, 2002 at 17:41:50:
: In the formula for the slope of a line...the slope is "m". Is "m" named after the mathematician that discovered the formula?
: Thanks,
: Jason
There has been a lot of research done on that. So far, no one has been able to prove their claim as to why m is used for slope. One fairly common belief (besides the initial of a mathematician) is that there is an archaic French word (beginning with m) that means slope. Many people tend to believe this as one of the early developers of similar topics was the French philosopher/mathematician Rene Descartes.