GMAT Math : GMAT Quantitative Reasoning

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GMAT Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #891 : Gmat Quantitative Reasoning

Given , find the equation of a line that is perpendicular to  and goes through the point .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Given

We need a perpendicular line going through (14,0). 

Perpendicular lines have opposite reciprocal slopes.

So we get our slope to be

 

Next, plug in all our knowns into  and solve for .

.

Making our answer

.

Example Question #892 : Problem Solving Questions

Given the function , which of the following is the equation of a line perpendicular to  and has a -intercept of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Given a line  defined by the equation  with slope , any line that is perpendicular to  must have a slope, or the negative reciprocal of .

Since , the slope  is  and the slope of any line  parallel to  must have a slope of .

Since  also needs to have a -intercept of , then the equation for  must be .

Example Question #893 : Problem Solving Questions

Given the function , which of the following is the equation of a line perpendicular to  and has a -intercept of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Given a line  defined by the equation  with slope , any line that is perpendicular to  must have a slope, or the negative reciprocal of .

Since , the slope  is  and the slope of any line  parallel to  must have a slope of .

Since  also needs to have a -intercept of , then the equation for  must be .

Example Question #894 : Problem Solving Questions

Given the function , which of the following is the equation of a line perpendicular to  and has a -intercept of ?

Possible Answers:

None of the above

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Given a line  defined by the equation  with slope , any line that is perpendicular to  must have a slope, or the negative reciprocal of .

Since , the slope  is  and the slope of any line  parallel to  must have a slope of .

Since  also needs to have a -intercept of , then the equation for  must be .

Example Question #895 : Problem Solving Questions

Determine the equation of a line perpendicular to  at the point .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equation of a line in standard form is written as follows:

Where  is the slope of the line and  is the y intercept. First, we can determine the slope of the perpendicular line using the knowledge that its slope must be the negative reciprocal of the slope of the line to which it is perpendicular. For the given line, we can see that , so the slope of a line perpendicular to it will be the negative reciprocal of that value, which gives us:

Now that we know the slope of the perpendicular line, we can plug its value into the formula for a line along with the coordinates of the given point, allowing us to calculate the -intercept, :

We now have the slope and the -intercept of the perpendicular line, which is all we need to write its equation in standard form:

Example Question #1 : Calculating The Slope Of A Perpendicular Line

What is the slope of the line perpendicular to ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Perpendicular lines have slopes that are negative reciprocals of each other. Therefore, rewrite the equation in slope intercept form :

 

Slope of given line:

Negative reciprocal:

Example Question #1 : Calculating The Slope Of A Perpendicular Line

Line 1 is the line of the equation . Line 2 is perpendicular to this line. What is the slope of Line 2?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Rewrite in slope-intercept form:

The slope of the line is the coefficient of , which is . A line perpendicular to this has as its slope the opposite of the reciprocal of :

Example Question #2 : Calculating The Slope Of A Perpendicular Line

Given:

 

Calculate the slope of , a line perpendicular to .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the slope of a line perpendicular to a given line, simply take the opposite reciprocal of the slope of the given line.

Since f(x) is given in slope intercept form,

.

Therefore our original slope is

So our new slope becomes:

Example Question #1 : Calculating The Slope Of A Perpendicular Line

What would be the slope of a line perpendicular to the following line?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equation for a line in standard form is written as follows:

Where  is the slope of the line and  is the y intercept. By definition, the slope of a line is the negative reciprocal of the slope of the line to which it is perpendicular. So if the given line has a slope of , the slope of any line perpendicular to it will have the negative reciprocal of that slope. This gives us:

Example Question #2 : Calculating The Slope Of A Perpendicular Line

What is the slope of a line perpendicular to the line of the equation ?

Possible Answers:

The line has an undefined slope.

Correct answer:

The line has an undefined slope.

Explanation:

The graph of  for any real number  is a horizontal line. A line parallel to it is a vertical line, which has a slope that is undefined.

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