152k views
4 votes
A straight line, L, is perpendicular to the straight line y=2x-1 and passes through the point (8,1). Find an equation of L

1 Answer

2 votes
Let's call that other line with the eqn. y=2x-1 line M.
This line is in slope-intercept form, which means that it is written in the form y=mx+b where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept.
This means that the slope of line M is 2.

Perpendicular lines have slopes which are opposite reciprocals.
(that is to say, if you flipped the fraction and changed the sign)

Of course, 2 isn't a fraction, but it's implied as 2/1.
The opposite reciprocal would then be -1/2.
Let's plug this into our slope-intercept form equation for line L.

y = mx + b
y = -1/2x + b

Of course, we still need to find that y-intercept. (y when x = 0)
To do this, we need to interpret the slope.
Slopes are rise over run, so m = -1/2 means a change of -1 in y = 2 in x.
Let's take a point we know is in our line, (8, 1).
To find that y-intercept, we want x to be 0.
To do this, we'd have to subtract 8 from x.
And according to our slope, this means adding 4 to y.
Our y-intercept is at (0, 5), with the value b that we use being just 5.


\boxed{y=-\frac{1}2x+5}
User Jkatam
by
9.0k points

No related questions found

Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.

9.4m questions

12.2m answers

Categories