Question

What is the equation of a line perpendicular to the line `- 8x + y = - 56` and contains the point `(8,7)`?

Answer 1

solve for y
`y=8x-56`

if a line is perpendicular, its slope is the negative reciprocal.
the slope of this equation is 8, so the slope of a line perpendicular to it is `-1/8`

plug this into the point-slope eqation
`y-7=-1/8(x-8)`

this can be simplified to
`y=-1/8x+8`