Through:(5,3), perp. To y=5x+5

Question

Writing the slope-intercept form of the equation of the line described

Answer 1

Hi Ni!

This problem is one that becomes much easier with one simple piece of knowledge: if you already have one line represented by y = Mx + B, any line with a slope of -1/M will be perpendicular to it.

Since in the given equation, M = 5, your solution will have a slope of -1/5, which we can represent as y = -1/5x. Then, in order to find our B value, all we need to do is plug in a known x value, then add or subtract to the equation to produce the correct y output. So, since we know that an x value of 5 should produce an y output of 3, we can plug 5 in as x, finding:

y = (-1/5) * (5) or y= -1

Simply by adding 4 to our equation, we produce a new equation: y = -1/5x + 4, we can correct this outcome.

Now we have produced a slope-intercept form equation for a line that goes through the point (5,3) and is perpendicular to y = 5x+5.