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Since a horizontal line never moves up or down, its y-coordinates never change.
That means the "change in y-coordinates" is 0. When we divide by the change in x-
coordinates to find slope, our final answer will be 0. Vertical lines go straight up
and down.
ILLUSTRATE/SOLVE.
Horizontal Lines
Example 2: Write an equation for the horizontal line that passes through (6, 2) .
Since the line is horizontal, y is constant--that is, y always takes the same value.
Since y takes a value of 2 at the point (6, 2) , y always takes the value 2 . Thus, the
equation is y = 2 .
Vertical Lines
Similarly, in the graph of a vertical line, x only takes one value. Thus, the equation
for a vertical line is x = a , where a is the value that xtakes.
Since x always takes the value 2 = , the equation for the line is x = .
Example 4: Write an equation for the vertical line that passes through(6, 2) .
Since the line is vertical, x is constant--that is, x always takes the same value.
Since x takes a value of 6 at the point (6, 2) , x always takes the value 6 . Thus, the
equation is x = 6 .
Incidentally, the lines y = 2 and x = 6 are perpendicular to each other. In fact, all
horizontal lines y = b are perpendicular to all vertical lines x = a . The usual
relationship between the slopes of perpendicular lines does not work here, as we
might expect, because the slope of a horizontal line is 0 which has no reciprocal.
5 EXAMPLES
Graph x = -3.
Question: Find the equation of the horizontal line, where the required horizontal
line is having the y intercept value (0, 1).
Solution:
Solution:
Solution:
Graph of the equations x - 3 = 0, x + 4 = 0 and line passes through points (1, 3) and
(1, -2) are parallel to y-axis.
5 TEST QUESTIONS
Problem : Write an equation for the vertical line that passes through(2, 4) .
x=2
y=-4
Problem : Write an equation for the horizontal line that passes through (- 12, 18) .
y = 18
Problem : Write an equation for the graph of the following line:
x=1
Problem : Match each equation with its corresponding graph.
a) y = 3
b) y = 3x
c) x = 3
d) x = 3y
a) D
b) A
c) C
d) B