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What to do if B is negative in a transformation? Does it become a positive fraction or stay a negative fraction when reflected over the y axis?

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Explanation:

what is B in your question ? you did not tell us.

since you mention "fraction", I assume B is the slope of a line ?

if that is the case, please remember, the slope is (y coordinate change / x coordinate change) when going from one point of the line to another.

the way you phrased it I assume the slope was originally negative.

that means either the y difference or the x difference was negative (but not both, otherwise it would have been a positive fraction again).

let's look at what happens, when things get reflected across the y axis :

things go from the left side (negative x values) to the right side (positive x values) of the y axis or vice versa.

and things stay on the same side of the x axis (either above the x-axis with positive y values, or below the x-axis with negative y values).

so, that reflection causes the x values to flip their sign, but the y values stay the same.

so, if y was originally negative, then x must have been positive. after the reflection x is now negative too, that makes the y/x fraction -/- = +/+ positive.

if y was originally positive, then x must have been negative. after the reflection x is now positive too, that makes the y/x fraction +/+ positive.

therefore, in every case, the reflected slope fraction must be positive.

User Cyprien Aubry
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