Question

Melanie was asked to find the slope of any line that will be perpendicular to the line y = -2x + 4. Her response was the slope of any perpendicular line also has to be -2 . since perpendicular has equal slopes. Is Melanie correct? if she is, explains why. If she is not correct explain why not and explain how to get the correct answer.

Answer 1

Melanie is wrong, becuase the parallel lines have equal slopes.

Perpendicular lines have the following relation of their slopes:

`m_1=-(1)/(m_2)`

So, in this case the line y=-2x+4 has a slope m=-2, and the perpendicular lines must have the slope:

`m_1=-(1)/((-2))=(1)/(2)`