Question

if a staircase has 8 inches of rise for every 12 inches of thread, what is the slope of the staircase?

Answer 1

14.4 inches ( to 1 decimal place)

the rise and tread are at right angles to each other and the slope is the hypotenuse of the right triangle formed

using Pythagoras' identity

slope = √(8² + 12²) = √(64 + 144) = √208 = 14.4 ( to 1 dec. place)

Answer 2

Using the formula for m=slope=ystep/xstep the slope of your staircase is 8/12= 2/3 and hence 66.6% slope