Expert: Chanda Walker - 2/12/2009

Question
Aline perpendicular to y=3x-2 and passing through (2,3)
and graph it


Answer
I don't do graphs sorry!  But I'll tell you the line . . .

The slope of the given line is: 3
The slope of the perpendicular line is therefore -1/3.

The perpendicular line's equations looks like this so far:
y = (-1/3)x + b

but we still need to solve for b.  We'll use the given point to solve for b.

3 = (-1/3) * 2 + b
2 = -2/3 + b
4/3 = b


Now we can construct the perpendicular line.

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

This line will cross the y axis at 4/3 and it will cross the x axis at 4.  Perhaps that is enough to help you graph the line.