Find the Slope of a Parallel Line 7x+2y=4

$7 x + 2 y = 4$

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 $7 x$ from both sides of the equation.

$2 y = 4 - 7 x$

Divide each term in $2 y = 4 - 7 x$ by $2$ and simplify.

Divide each term in $2 y = 4 - 7 x$ by $2$ .

$\frac{2 y}{2} = \frac{4}{2} + \frac{- 7 x}{2}$

Simplify the left side.

Cancel the common factor of $2$ .

Cancel the common factor.

$\frac{2 y}{2} = \frac{4}{2} + \frac{- 7 x}{2}$

Divide $y$ by $1$ .

$y = \frac{4}{2} + \frac{- 7 x}{2}$

Simplify the right side.

Simplify each term.

Divide $4$ by $2$ .

$y = 2 + \frac{- 7 x}{2}$

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

$y = 2 - \frac{7 x}{2}$

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

Reorder $2$ and $- \frac{7 x}{2}$ .

$y = - \frac{7 x}{2} + 2$

Reorder terms.

$y = - (\frac{7}{2} x) + 2$

Remove parentheses.

$y = - \frac{7}{2} x + 2$

Step 2

Using the slope-intercept form, the slope is $- \frac{7}{2}$ .

$m = - \frac{7}{2}$

Step 3

All lines that are parallel to $y = - \frac{7}{2} x + 2$ have the same slope of $- \frac{7}{2}$ .

$m_{parallel} = - \frac{7}{2}$

Step 4