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Melanie was asked to find the slope of any line that will be perpendicular to the line y = -2x + 4. Her response was the slope of any perpendicular line also has to be -2 . since perpendicular has equal slopes. Is Melanie correct? if she is, explains why. If she is not correct explain why not and explain how to get the correct answer.



Answer :

Melanie is wrong, becuase the parallel lines have equal slopes.

Perpendicular lines have the following relation of their slopes:

[tex]m_1=-\frac{1}{m_2}[/tex]

So, in this case the line y=-2x+4 has a slope m=-2, and the perpendicular lines must have the slope:

[tex]m_1=-\frac{1}{(-2)}=\frac{1}{2}[/tex]

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