Question

What is the slope of the line perpendicular to `y=3x+7`?

Answer 1

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

The equation in the problem is in slope-intercept form. The slope-intercept form of a linear equation is: `y = color(red)(m)x + color(blue)(b)`

Where `color(red)(m)` is the slope and `color(blue)(b)` is the y-intercept value.

`y = color(red)(3)x + color(blue)(7)` has a slope of:

`color(red)(m = 3)`

Let's call the slope of a perpendicular line `m_p`

The formula for `m_p` is:

`m_p = -1/m`

Substituting gives:

`m_p = -1/3`