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the lines below are perpendicular. If the green line has a slope of -3, what is the slope of the red line? Enter your answer as an integer or fraction in lowest terms.​

the lines below are perpendicular. If the green line has a slope of -3, what is the-example-1

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Answer: 1/3

Explanation: To most students, perpendicular lines are simply lines that meet at a 90° angle.

However, when doing problems like these, it's important

to think about perpendicular lines in terms of their slopes.

As a rule, the slopes of two perpendicular lines

are always negative reciprocals.

What that means is that the signs will be opposite

and the fractions will be flipped.

So we can think of the green line having a slope of -3/1.

If we flip it and change the signs, that is what our slope

will be the the red line.

So flipping and changing the sign we have 1/3.

So the slope of the red line is 1/3.

User Robin Weston
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