If I have the gradient of a line, what do I do to find the gradient of the line perpendicular to it?

Can I just multiply by -1 or is it a negative reciprocal?


Whats the gradient of a line perpendicular to a line with gradient -3/2?If I have the gradient of a line, what do I do to find the gradient of the line perpendicular to it?
The product of the slopes of perpendicular lines is -1.





So,





-3/2 * s = -1





s = 2/3 is the slope of the perpend line.





To check:





(-3/2)(2/3) = -1If I have the gradient of a line, what do I do to find the gradient of the line perpendicular to it?
The slope of a line perpendicular would be the negative reciprocal.
the gradients of perpendicular lines will be negative inverse of the gradient of the givenn line


si 2/3
negative perpindicular. is slope=-3/2, the slope of the perpindicular is


-(-2/3)=2/3
Yes, you can multiply the slope by -1 to get the slope of the perpendicular line, with two exceptions.





If you have a line with slope 0, it is a horizontal line. The perpendicular line will be vertical and have a slope that is undefined.





The other exception is a vertical line, which has an undefined slope. The perpendicular line will be horizontal and have a slope of 0.