The location of runway A for a new airport is shown on the coordinate plane below.

Two additional runways are planned. Each will pass through the point (0,-4) on the coordinate plane.

Runway B is to be parallel to runway A.

Runway C is to be perpendicular to runway A.

Which equations could describe either of those runways?

1 answer

To provide the equations for Runway B and Runway C, we first need to determine the slope of Runway A. Since the details about Runway A's coordinates are not provided, let’s assume the equation of Runway A is in the slope-intercept form, \(y = mx + b\), where \(m\) is the slope.

  1. Runway B (parallel to Runway A):

    • Since Runway B is parallel to Runway A, it will have the same slope as Runway A. The equation can be written in the slope-intercept form, where the y-intercept will be different, and it will still pass through the point (0, -4).
    • Given a slope \(m\), the equation of Runway B can be expressed as: \[ y = mx - 4 \]
    • You could also express it in point-slope form as: \[ y + 4 = m(x - 0) \quad \text{or} \quad y + 4 = mx \]
  2. Runway C (perpendicular to Runway A):

    • The slope of a line that is perpendicular to another line is the negative reciprocal of the original line's slope. Therefore, if the slope of Runway A is \(m\), the slope of Runway C would be \(-\frac{1}{m}\).
    • Like Runway B, Runway C should also pass through the point (0, -4). Therefore, its equation can be expressed in slope-intercept form: \[ y = -\frac{1}{m}x - 4 \]
    • In point-slope form, it can be expressed as: \[ y + 4 = -\frac{1}{m}(x - 0) \quad \text{or} \quad y + 4 = -\frac{1}{m}x \]

Without the explicit slope from Runway A, we cannot provide exact numeric equations, but the general forms for Runway B and Runway C are outlined above based on the slope \(m\) of Runway A.