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Consider the line y = 6x-9.

What is the slope of a line parallel to this line?
What is the slope of a line perpendicular to this line?
Slope of a parallel line:
Slope of a perpendicular line:

User Vannen
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1 Answer

19 votes
19 votes

Answer:

Gradient of parallel line: 6

Gradient of perpendicular line: -1/6

Explanation:

The gradient is the value of m in the equation format y = mx + c.

Parallel lines share the same gradient, with just the y-axis intercept (c value) changing.

The gradient of a line perpendicular to a line is found by taking the negative reciprocal of the original line's gradient. A reciprocal is a essentially fraction flipped over. For example 3/2 becomes 2/3. 6 can be expressed as 6/1 (as every whole number can be divided by 1), so the reciprocal of that is 1/6. The negative version of 1/6 is -1/6.

User Moonpatrol
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