Find the Slope of a Perpendicular Line x+5y=-9

$x + 5 y = - 9$

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 $x$ from both sides of the equation.

$5 y = - 9 - x$

Divide each term in $5 y = - 9 - x$ by $5$ and simplify.

Divide each term in $5 y = - 9 - x$ by $5$ .

$\frac{5 y}{5} = \frac{- 9}{5} + \frac{- x}{5}$

Simplify the left side.

Cancel the common factor of $5$ .

Cancel the common factor.

$\frac{5 y}{5} = \frac{- 9}{5} + \frac{- x}{5}$

Divide $y$ by $1$ .

$y = \frac{- 9}{5} + \frac{- x}{5}$

Simplify the right side.

Simplify each term.

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

$y = - \frac{9}{5} + \frac{- x}{5}$

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

$y = - \frac{9}{5} - \frac{x}{5}$

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

Reorder $- \frac{9}{5}$ and $- \frac{x}{5}$ .

$y = - \frac{x}{5} - \frac{9}{5}$

Reorder terms.

$y = - (\frac{1}{5} x) - \frac{9}{5}$

Remove parentheses.

$y = - \frac{1}{5} x - \frac{9}{5}$

Step 2

Using the slope-intercept form, the slope is $- \frac{1}{5}$ .

$m = - \frac{1}{5}$

Step 3

The equation of a perpendicular line to $y = - \frac{1}{5} x - \frac{9}{5}$ must have a slope that is the negative reciprocal of the original slope.

$m_{perpendicular} = - \frac{1}{- \frac{1}{5}}$

Step 4

Simplify the result.

Cancel the common factor of $1$ and $- 1$ .

Rewrite $1$ as $- 1 (- 1)$ .

$m_{perpendicular} = - \frac{- 1 \cdot - 1}{- \frac{1}{5}}$

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

$m_{perpendicular} = \frac{1}{\frac{1}{5}}$

Multiply the numerator by the reciprocal of the denominator.

$m_{perpendicular} = 1 \cdot 5$

Multiply $- - (1 \cdot 5)$ .

Multiply $5$ by $1$ .

$m_{perpendicular} = - (- 1 \cdot 5)$

Multiply $- 1$ by $5$ .

$m_{perpendicular} = 5$

Multiply $- 1$ by $- 5$ .

$m_{perpendicular} = 5$

Step 5

Find the Slope of a Perpendicular Line x+5y=-9

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