I had forgotten about slope, seeing that we studied it in 8th grade and I am amazed how it has made a resurgence in our 10th grade math class.
Slope is rise/run or in other words; vertical distance/ horizontal distance.
Similarly, grade is used interchangeably with slope. Grade is where 0 is the gravitational level or flat surface and anything higher creates an upward path. Therefore, the higher grade percentage, the steeper the slope. The equation for grade is %grade = 100xrise/run.
Now tangent is equal to the ratio of the vertical side to the horizontal side or opposite side/ adjacent side which is very to the equation for slope. When you try to find the slope of line, you seam to be making a triangle with the part of the line as the hypotenuse. Therefore, the trig function is the tangent of an angle = rise/run.

I like to incorporate slope or grade into my life in two ways:  In a love/hate relationship and as an encouraging idea .

Two years ago, while I was a member of the Durango Ski Team, we had dry land training for an hour on Saturday morning and then ski practice for six hours after that. The dry land training consisted of weights and running. It was hard enough to run in Albuquerque, but when you add more elevation and cold weather to the workout, it's miserable. So while running up the gravel path that runs adjacent to the ski slope, I despised the incline.  However, within the next hour, I was on the ski slope, bombing down the hill and grateful for such a steep slope that allowed for me to gain speed. Similarly, I was glad that the chairlifts ascended almost to the sky, allowing for a greater decline down the hill.

Last year, Mr. Smith asked us during common time (something like) "are you willing to put all your effort into your studies just to end up not doing well? Because if you do put effort and that ends up being the case, at least you know you tried." Every time since then, when I've paused in the middle of studying history to ask myself "why are you doing this?" I try to remember Mr. Smith's words. Sometimes, I'm just going to have to trek it up that steep hill, only to be disappointed. But in the end, its knowing that you made it up the slope and that you're that much closer to the top of the mountain. In my mind, the slope keeps growing with more effort you put in, because developing the correct study habits and doing the work gets you father than just skimming along the flat, 0 grade, surface.