Question

A L G E B R A : The line 12x + 2y = 6 is perpendicular to the line:
a. y = 2x - 9
b. y = 1/6x + 2
c. -12x - 6 = -2y
d. y = -1/6x + 7

And could you please explain how you found that out?

Answer 1

First, rearrange the equation and simplify so that the "y" term is on the left hand side.

Answer 2

In other words, you want to end up with:
y = -6x + 3

Answer 3

With me so far?

Answer 4

Is that after solving the problem?

Answer 5

Like, how would you rearrange the equation so "y" would be on the left?

Answer 6

Basically, what I mean is, "Rewrite the formula so that it looks like the way we usually write equations of a line."
In other words, so it's in slope-intercept form:
y = mx + b,

Answer 7

What I'm trying to get at is that the slope of the line you started with is "-6". Next, once you have that slope, it's easy to calculate the slope of a line perpendicular to it.

That's because given a slope "m", the slope of a line perpendicular to it (call that slope " m' " is given by the formula:
m' = -1/m

Thus, you want to choose the line with a slope equal to "1/6". Make sense??