Question

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

2x + 3y = 21. Fully simplify your answer.

Answer 1

keeping in mind that perpendicular lines have negative reciprocal slopes, let's check for the slope of the equation above

`2x+3y=21\implies 3y=-2x+21\implies y=\cfrac{-2x+21}{3} \\\\\\ y=\cfrac{-2x}{3}+\cfrac{21}{3}\implies y=\stackrel{\stackrel{m}{\downarrow }}{-\cfrac{2}{3}}x+7\qquad \impliedby \begin{array}ll \cline{1-1} slope-intercept~form\\ \cline{1-1} \\ y=\underset{y-intercept}{\stackrel{slope\qquad }{\stackrel{\downarrow }{m}x+\underset{\uparrow }{b}}} \\\\ \cline{1-1} \end{array}`

well then, that simply means that

`\stackrel{~\hspace{5em}\textit{perpendicular lines have \underline{negative reciprocal} slopes}~\hspace{5em}} {\stackrel{slope}{\cfrac{-2}{3}} ~\hfill \stackrel{reciprocal}{\cfrac{3}{-2}} ~\hfill \stackrel{negative~reciprocal}{-\cfrac{3}{-2}\implies \cfrac{3}{2}}}`