What is the slope of a line perpendicular to a line that contains the points (-5, 4) and (-2, 4)?

Question

kamibug · Answer

Do you know what the relationship is with the slopes of perpendicular lines?

anonymous · Answer

I do not

kamibug · Answer

Okay, so perpendicular lines have opposite reciprocal slopes. that means if one line has a slope of 3 the line perpendicular to it would be -1/3. Get it?

anonymous · Answer

yes, a little bit

kamibug · Answer

Alright so the question says you need to find a slope of a line perpendicular to the one that contains those points. The only info you really need about that line that has those points is what is its slope. Do you know how to find slope using the given coordinates?

anonymous · Answer

Slope is the change in y over the change in x. so the formula is y2-y1/x2-x1. so 4- 4over -2- (-5) is 0. Since the slope is 0 the slope of the perpendicular line is infinity.

anonymous · Answer

Yes, but infinity is awkward. The first line is horizontal, y=4 and the second is vertical, x = constant.