Find the Slope of a Parallel Line 2x+5y=-1

$2 x + 5 y = - 1$

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.

$5 y = - 1 - 2 x$

Divide each term in $5 y = - 1 - 2 x$ by $5$ and simplify.

Divide each term in $5 y = - 1 - 2 x$ by $5$ .

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

Simplify the left side.

Cancel the common factor of $5$ .

Cancel the common factor.

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

Divide $y$ by $1$ .

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

Simplify the right side.

Simplify each term.

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

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

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

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

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

Reorder $- \frac{1}{5}$ and $- \frac{2 x}{5}$ .

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

Reorder terms.

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

Remove parentheses.

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

Step 2

Using the slope-intercept form, the slope is $- \frac{2}{5}$ .

$m = - \frac{2}{5}$

Step 3

All lines that are parallel to $y = - \frac{2}{5} x - \frac{1}{5}$ have the same slope of $- \frac{2}{5}$ .

$m_{parallel} = - \frac{2}{5}$

Step 4