How do you find the slope of a line perpendicular to 5x-2y=-1?

2 Answers
Apr 1, 2015

Remember that given a slope, m, the slope perpendicular to it is -1/m (the negative of its inverse).

Re-write the given equation 5x-2y= -1 in slope-point form:
y=5/2x +1/2

The slope of the given equation is 5/2
and the slope of a line perpendicular to it is -2/5

Apr 1, 2015

The slope is: (-2/5)

Perpendicular lines' slopes are negative reciprocals.

y = (5x+1)/2

The slope of line y is: 5/2

So m * (5/2) = -1

We need to find m to find the slope of the perpendicular line.

m = (-2/5)