How can you tell perpendicular lines

Their intersection forms a right, or degree, angle. The two lines in Figure 20 are perpendicular. Perpendicular lines do not have the same slope.

The slopes of perpendicular lines are different from one another in a specific way. The slope of one line is the negative reciprocal of the slope of the other line. The product of a number and its reciprocal is 1. To find the reciprocal of a number, divide 1 by the number. To find the negative reciprocal, first find the reciprocal and then change the sign. As with parallel lines, we can determine whether two lines are perpendicular by comparing their slopes, assuming that the lines are neither horizontal nor perpendicular.

The slope of each line below is the negative reciprocal of the other so the lines are perpendicular. Two lines are parallel lines if they do not intersect. The slopes of the lines are the same. So these two lines are perpendicular. Now, if two lines are perpendicular, if the slope of this orange line is m-- so let's say its equation is y is equal to mx plus, let's say it's b 1, so it's some y-intercept-- then the equation of this yellow line, its slope is going to be the negative inverse of this guy.

This guy right here is going to be y is equal to negative 1 over mx plus some other y-intercept. Or another way to think about it is if two lines are perpendicular, the product of their slopes is going to be negative 1. And so you could write that there. So let's figure out the slopes of each of these lines and figure out if any of them are the negative inverse of any of the other ones.

So line A, the slope is pretty easy to figure out, it's already in slope-intercept form, its slope is 3. So line A has a slope of 3. Line B, it's in standard form, not too hard to put it in slope-intercept form, so let's try to do it. So let's do line B over here. Line B, we have x plus 3y is equal to negative Let's subtract x from both sides so that it ends up on the right-hand side.

So we end up with 3y is equal to negative x minus Explanation : If the slopes of two lines can be calculated, an easy way to determine whether they are perpendicular is to multiply their slopes. Possible Answers: Yes, because the product of their slopes is.

Correct answer: Yes, because the product of their slopes is. Explanation : The product of perpendicular slopes is always. Since line passes through and , we can use the slope equation: Since the two slopes' product is , the lines are perpendicular.

Are the following two lines perpendicular: and. Explanation : For two lines to be perpendicular they have to have slopes that multiply to get.

Explanation : If lines are perpendicular, then their slopes will be negative reciprocals. First, we need to find the slope of the given line. Copyright Notice. Joseph Certified Tutor. Joshua Certified Tutor. Nick Certified Tutor. Kalamazoo College, Bachelors, Chemistry. Report an issue with this question If you've found an issue with this question, please let us know. Do not fill in this field.

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