Pearson Algebra 1 Common Core, 2015
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Pearson Algebra 1 Common Core, 2015 View details
6. Parallel and Perpendicular Lines
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Exercise 1 Page 333

Parallel lines have the same slope and the slopes of perpendicular lines are opposite reciprocals.

Parallel: y=6x and y=6x-2
Perpendicular: y=- 1/6x and y=6x; y=- 1/6x and y=6x-2

Practice makes perfect

Two lines are parallel if their slopes are identical. To tell if two lines are perpendicular, we check if their slopes are opposite reciprocals. Let's tackle these questions one at a time.

Are They Parallel?

To start, let's highlight the slope of each equation. Note that all equations are already written in slope-intercept form.
Option Equation Slope
(I) y=-1/6x -1/6
(II) y=6x 6
(III) y=6x-2 6

Now that we've identified the slope of each line, we can see that (II) and (III) have the same slope, so they are parallel.

Are They Perpendicular?

For lines with different slopes, we can conclude that they are not parallel. To determine whether or not they are perpendicular, we calculate the product of their slopes. Any two slopes whose product equals -1 are opposite reciprocals, and therefore the lines are perpendicular. Let's calculate the product of - 16 and 6. -1/6* 6=- 1 Since the product equals - 1, line (I) is perpendicular to both lines (II) and (III).