Question

Find the slope of the line that is perpendicular to the line that passes through the following pair of points: (12, -16) and (-2, -11)

Answer 1

,First we need to find the slope of the line that passes through (12, -16) and (-2, -11)​

the slope can be calculated using these points

(12, -16)=(x1,y1)

(-2, -11)​=(x2,y2)

the formula to calculate the slope is

`m=(y_2-y_1)/(x_2-x_1)`

we substitute the values

`m=(-11+16)/(-2+12)=(5)/(10)=(1)/(2)`

The slopes of two perpendicular lines are negative reciprocals of each other. This means that if a line is perpendicular to a line that has slope m, then the slope of the line is -1 / m

so if m=1/2

the slope of a perpendicular line will be m=-2