What is the slope of any line perpendicular to the line passing through $(4, - 7)$ $(4,-7)$ and $(1, - 12)$ $(1,-12)$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-01-09T12:21:04

$- \frac{3}{5}$ $-3/5$

Let the slope of the line passing through the given points be $m$ $m$ .

$m = \frac{- 12 - (- 7)}{1 - 4} = \frac{- 12 + 7}{- 3} = \frac{- 5}{- 3} = \frac{5}{3}$ $m=(-12-(-7))/(1-4)=(-12+7)/-3=(-5)/-3=5/3$

Let the slope of the line perpendicular to the line passing through the given points be $m'$ .

Then $m*m'=-1 implies m'=-1/m=-1/(5/3)=-3/5$

$implies m'=-3/5$

Hence, the slope of the required line is $-3/5$ .

What is the slope of any line perpendicular to the line passing through (4,-7)(4,−7)(4,-7) and (1,-12)(1,−12)(1,-12)?