Find the Slope of a Perpendicular Line y=2/5x+9

$y = \frac{2}{5} x + 9$

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.

$y = m x + b$

Simplify the right side.

Combine $\frac{2}{5}$ and $x$ .

$y = \frac{2 x}{5} + 9$

Reorder terms.

$y = \frac{2}{5} x + 9$

Step 2

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

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

Step 3

The equation of a perpendicular line to $y = \frac{2}{5} x + 9$ must have a slope that is the negative reciprocal of the original slope.

$m_{perpendicular} = - \frac{1}{\frac{2}{5}}$

Step 4

Simplify the result.

Multiply the numerator by the reciprocal of the denominator.

$m_{perpendicular} = - (1 (\frac{5}{2}))$

Multiply $\frac{5}{2}$ by $1$ .

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

Step 5