How do you write an equation of a line passing through (-4, -3), perpendicular to 4x + y=7?

Question

3653 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2016-09-04T00:43:01

The equation is #y = 1/4x - 2#.

A line perpendicular to another will have a slope that's the negative reciprocal of the other.

Let's make the initial equation into slope-intercept form#->y = mx + b#

#4x + y = 7 -> y = 7 - 4x#

The slope here is #-4#.

The slope of the line perpendicular will be #1/4#.

By point-slope form, the equation of the line perpendicular is:

#y - y_1 = m(x - x_1)#

#y - (-3) = 1/4(x - (-4))#

#y + 3 = 1/4x + 1#

#y = 1/4x - 2#

Hopefully this helps!