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What is the slope of a line perpendicular to the line whose equation is

4x - 5y = 10. Fully simplify your answer. Pls help me tysm

User Alexander Van Berg
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1 Answer

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19 votes

Perpendicular lines have slopes that are opposite signs and reciprocals.

For example, the perpendicular slope to 2/3 is -3/2 (opposite sign and flipped upside-down).

The first step on your question is to find the slope of your line. You can do this by putting the equation into slope-intercept form:


\begin{aligned}4x-5y &= 10\\[0.5em]-5y &= -4x+10\\[0.5em]y &= (4)/(5)x-2\endaligned}

From this, we can see your slope is 4/5.

The perpendicular slope will be -5/4.

User Chris Browne
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