
Doug C. answered 06/11/25
Math Tutor with Reputation to make difficult concepts understandable
In order to determine the equation of the line that is perpendicular to the given line, you need to determine the slope of the given line. You do that by transforming to slope-intercept from, i.e. y = mx + b (get the y variable by itself).
3x + 7y = 21
7y = -3x + 21 (subtract the term 3x from both sides; some say "drag" the term from left side to right side, and when you "drag" a term its sign is changed; that is just a mental image to use--you really are just subtracting from both sides).
y = (1/7) (-3x + 21) --divide both sides by the numerical coefficient of y; or multiply by its reciprocal.
y = -3x/7 + 3 -- use the distributive property for multiplication over addition
In this form you can identify the slope of the original line as -3/7. Note that the original post is incorrect. The y-intercept is at (0,3).
The slope of the perpendicular is 7/3 (the negative or opposite reciprocal of -3/7). We want the perpendicular line to have a y-intercept of (0,2). So we have m = 7/3 and b = 2. Just substitute into y = mx + b:
y = (7/3)x + 2 is the equation of the perpendicular.
Visit this Desmos graph to see that all lines with a slope of 7/3 are perpendicular to the original line:
desmos.com/calculator/lkv8t01hax