Question

Write an equation for a line perpendicular to y = -5x - 4 and passing through the point (-5, -4) ​

Answer 1

Answer:

Step-by-step explanation:

A perpendicular slope is one that is the opposite reciprocal of the one given. The line given, y = -5x - 4, is a line in slope-intercept form where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept. That means that the slope of the given line is -5; therefore, the perpendicular slope is 1/5. Passing through the point (-5, -4), we have

$y-(-4)=\frac{1}{5}(x-(-5))$ which simplifies a bit to

$y+4=\frac{1}{5}(x+5)$ That's the line in point-slope form, so let's also get it into slope-intercept form, which means that we solve the point-slope form equation for y:

$y+4=\frac{1}{5}x+1$ and

$y=\frac{1}{5}x+1-4$ gives us, finally,

$y=\frac{1}{5}x-3$