What is the slope of the line perpendicular to $y = \frac{5}{2} x - 9$ $y=5/2x-9$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-02-24T04:58:46

Remember that the slope of a perpendicular line is the NEGATIVE RECIPROCAL of another line.

From the line that we are given, we can see that the slope is clearly $\frac{5}{2}$ $5/2$ (y = mx + b where m is the slope)

So, now we just take the negative reciprocal.

A reciprocal is just flipping the fraction upside down

So we have $\frac{2}{5}$ $2/5$ instead of $\frac{5}{2}$ $5/2$

But we must also remember the negative!!

So the slope of our perpendicular line is $- \frac{5}{2}$ $-5/2$

What is the slope of the line perpendicular to y=5/2x-9 y=52x−9y=5/2x-9 ?