# What is the degree of incline...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 20, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472 "2006-09-20T20:40:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472/1 "2006-09-20T20:40:19Z")
…if you gain 70 feet of elevation over 2.4 miles?
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2006, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472/2 "2006-09-20T20:44:41Z")
About .3 degrees. The formula is atan(change in height/change in distance), and you just have to be careful to express both height and distance in the same units.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472/3 "2006-09-20T20:49:58Z")
.32
Just treat it as a right triangle problem with units expressed the same.
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### Author:  [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2006, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472/4 "2006-09-21T06:08:48Z")
I get .3165 degrees so that seems like pretty good agreement from all 3 of us.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2006, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472/5 "2006-09-21T06:39:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> from all 3 of us
Shouldn’t that be all 3.000 of you?
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### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2006, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472/6 "2006-09-21T11:36:32Z")
Thanks. I am training for my first 10k and wanted to know where to set the incline on the treadmill. .5 should be more thatn adequate.
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2006, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472/7 "2006-09-21T12:04:52Z")
Set your treadmill at .005 radians.
Is the 10K up a gentle slope, or does it gain 70 feet of elevation by way of going up and down and up and down?
Anyway, any hill training is good for running, but I’d get on a real hill. I have no measurements to back this up, but the assistance one typically gets from the treadmill seems even more pronounced when comparing running on a hill to running on an inclined treadmill.
That is to say: when you run on an inclined treadmill, you’re not actually using your leg to increase your altitude. That’s where the real work of running hills comes in.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2006, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-degree-of-incline/373472/8 "2006-09-21T17:35:54Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#):
>
> About .3 degrees. The formula is atan(change in height/change in distance), and you just have to be careful to express both height and distance in the same units.
My inner pedant forces me to say that you should use asin rather than atan, since the distance measurment is certainly the length of the slope, not of its base. Of course, at that angle the difference is negligeable.