Question

What is the slope of a line that is perpendicular to the line y = x + 5?

Answer 1

-1

Explanation:

the line is exactly opposite like a mirror image when it is perpendicular,

so the gradient of the first line is 1 (because there is no number beside x, the gradient would be 1), that means the opposite of 1 would be -1.

The answer is -1

Answer 2

-1.

Explanation:

The standard form of a line can be written y = mx + b where m is the slope.

y = x + 5 can be written as y = 1x + 5 which shows that the slope is 1.

If the slope of a line is m then the slope of a line perpendicular to it is -1/m.

So the required slope is -1/1 = -1.