Find the Slope 2x+4y=5

$2 x + 4 y = 5$

Step 1

Rewrite in slope-intercept form.

The slope-intercept form is $y = m x + b$ , where $m$ is the slope and $b$ is the y-intercept.

$y = m x + b$

Subtract $2 x$ from both sides of the equation.

$4 y = 5 - 2 x$

Divide each term in $4 y = 5 - 2 x$ by $4$ and simplify.

Divide each term in $4 y = 5 - 2 x$ by $4$ .

$\frac{4 y}{4} = \frac{5}{4} + \frac{- 2 x}{4}$

Simplify the left side.

Cancel the common factor of $4$ .

Cancel the common factor.

$\frac{4 y}{4} = \frac{5}{4} + \frac{- 2 x}{4}$

Divide $y$ by $1$ .

$y = \frac{5}{4} + \frac{- 2 x}{4}$

Simplify the right side.

Simplify each term.

Cancel the common factor of $- 2$ and $4$ .

Factor $2$ out of $- 2 x$ .

$y = \frac{5}{4} + \frac{2 (- x)}{4}$

Cancel the common factors.

Factor $2$ out of $4$ .

$y = \frac{5}{4} + \frac{2 (- x)}{2 (2)}$

Cancel the common factor.

$y = \frac{5}{4} + \frac{2 (- x)}{2 \cdot 2}$

Rewrite the expression.

$y = \frac{5}{4} + \frac{- x}{2}$

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

$y = \frac{5}{4} - \frac{x}{2}$

Write in $y = m x + b$ form.

Reorder $\frac{5}{4}$ and $- \frac{x}{2}$ .

$y = - \frac{x}{2} + \frac{5}{4}$

Reorder terms.

$y = - (\frac{1}{2} x) + \frac{5}{4}$

Remove parentheses.

$y = - \frac{1}{2} x + \frac{5}{4}$

Step 2

Using the slope-intercept form, the slope is $- \frac{1}{2}$ .

$m = - \frac{1}{2}$

Step 3