What is the slope of a line perpendicular to 2x + y = 8 ?

Answer 1

Lines that are perpendicular have slopes whose product is - 1.

That is m₁(m₂) = -1 or in other words the slope of one is the NEGATIVE RECIPROCAL of the other

m₁ = - 1/m₂

So to find the slope of the 2nd line you need the slope of this first line. To do that you need to rewrite the given equation in the y = mx + b form

2x + y = 8....isolate y by bringing the 2x term to the RHS (-2x on both sides)

y = -2x + 8

As you can see the slope of this line, m₁ = ^-2/₁

So to find the slope of the 2nd line (that is PERPENDICULAR) m₂, take m₁ (1) flip it and (2) negate it....so m₂ = ¹/₂ Final Answer

Hope this helps...