6.

Write the equation of a line that is perpendicular to the given line and that passes through the given point.

2x + 9y = –30; (–8, 0)

1 answer

To find the equation of a line that is perpendicular to the given line \( 2x + 9y = -30 \) and passes through the point \((-8, 0)\), we can follow these steps:

  1. Find the slope of the given line:

    We need to rewrite the equation of the line in slope-intercept form (y = mx + b), where m is the slope.

    Start with the equation: \[ 2x + 9y = -30 \]

    Isolate \(y\): \[ 9y = -2x - 30 \] \[ y = -\frac{2}{9}x - \frac{30}{9} \] \[ y = -\frac{2}{9}x - \frac{10}{3} \]

    The slope of the given line \( m_1 = -\frac{2}{9} \).

  2. Determine the slope of the perpendicular line:

    The slope of the line that is perpendicular to another line is the negative reciprocal of the original slope. Thus, \[ m_2 = -\frac{1}{m_1} = -\frac{1}{-\frac{2}{9}} = \frac{9}{2} \]

  3. Use the point-slope formula:

    Now that we have the slope \( m_2 = \frac{9}{2} \) and the point \((-8, 0)\), we can use the point-slope form of a line: \[ y - y_1 = m(x - x_1) \]

    Plugging in our values: \[ y - 0 = \frac{9}{2}(x - (-8)) \] \[ y = \frac{9}{2}(x + 8) \]

  4. Simplify the equation:

    Distributing the slope: \[ y = \frac{9}{2}x + \frac{9 \cdot 8}{2} \] \[ y = \frac{9}{2}x + 36 \]

  5. Convert to standard form (if needed):

    If we want to express it in standard form \(Ax + By = C\), we can multiply through by 2 to eliminate the fraction: \[ 2y = 9x + 72 \] Rearranging gives us: \[ -9x + 2y = 72 \] or equivalently, \[ 9x - 2y = -72 \]

Thus, the equation of the line that is perpendicular to the given line and passes through the point \((-8, 0)\) is: \[ \boxed{9x - 2y = -72} \]