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

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Answer 1 · 2015-04-01T23:44:58

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

Re-write the given equation $5 x - 2 y = - 1$ $5x-2y= -1$ in slope-point form:
$y = \frac{5}{2} x + \frac{1}{2}$ $y=5/2x +1/2$

The slope of the given equation is $\frac{5}{2}$ $5/2$
and the slope of a line perpendicular to it is $- \frac{2}{5}$ $-2/5$

Answer 2 · 2015-04-01T23:46:43

The slope is: $(- \frac{2}{5})$ $(-2/5)$

Perpendicular lines' slopes are negative reciprocals.

$y = \frac{5 x + 1}{2}$ $y = (5x+1)/2$

The slope of line $y$ $y$ is: $\frac{5}{2}$ $5/2$

So $m \cdot (\frac{5}{2}) = - 1$ $m * (5/2) = -1$

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

$m = (- \frac{2}{5})$ $m = (-2/5)$

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