Straight Line

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What is Locus? How to find the equation to any locus?

Locus is the basis of the geometry. No any definition in geometry is complete without the introduction of the word
Locus.

Locus is the set of points which follows or shares the common property. In other words, we can say that the locus is
the path traced by any moving point or particle under specific conditions.

Example 1

Circle is the set of all those points which are equidistance from a fixed point (called the center of the circle) and this
fixed distance is called as the Radius of the Circle.

In other words, the Circle is the locus of a point moving in such a condition that its distance from the fixed point is
constant or always remains same.

Example 2

Let us take two fixed points A and B and a moving point P, moving in such a condition that its distance from the two
fixed points, that is, A and B, is always fixed or do not change. So, in this condition, the path traced by the moving
point will be a straight line and will be the perpendicular bisector of line joining A and B.

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Below are the straight forward steps to find the
equation to any locus of a point.

Assume the coordinates of moving point P as

(h, k) whose locus is to be determined.

Using the given condition between the moving

point and the fixed point, write a mathematical
equation. This equation must involve the
variables h and k.

Eliminate the variable (s) (if any).

At last, replace h by x and k by y to get the

equation of required locus.

Example 3

Find the locus of point P if P is equidistant from points A(3, 4) and B(5, -2)

Assuming P as (h, k).

As per the given condition, we can write

On Squaring the above equation and simplifying we get

4h 12k = 4 or h 3k = 1

Hence the locus of P is :- x 3y = 1

Note: - In the above problem, we dont have any other variable and thus we havent followed the third step.

Define Straight line in simple words?

After learning locus, its easy to define straight line in terms of locus.

Straight line is the locus of a moving point P (h, k), which moves in such a condition that P is always collinear with
the given two fixed points.

Also, we know from the concept of collinearity that, three points are collinear if they lie on a same straight line or
the area of triangle from by these points is zero.

In Algebra, the linear equations (one, two or any number of variables) represents a straight line. That means, if one
variable is changing (increasing or decreasing) linearly with the change in other variable, then the curve on graph
will be a straight line.

Example

y = 5, 2x + 5y + 3 = 0, x = 2y 5 are few examples of straight lines, but y = log(x), y = x 2, y = x + 1/x does not
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represent straight lines.

In this article, we will be discussing about straight lines in two variables only.

The general equation of straight line in two variables is represented as:

ax + by + c = 0

Where, a and b are the coefficients of x and y respectively and c is called as the Constant.

What slope represents?

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If we plot a straight line on a Cartesian (XY) plane, then we can see the inclination of the straight line with respect
to the x axis. This inclination or the angle between the straight line and the positive x axis is termed as slope of a
line.

In the Image above, we can observe different lines passing through same point (origin) but have different
inclinations with the x axis. This inclination is termed as the slope of the line.

Given a point, we can have infinite number of straight lines passing through it. This suggest us to have another
condition for the same line to be uniquely represented on the XY plane.

For example, A straight line passing through the origin and having the slope of 90 or 270 or 90 is the y axis
itself.

From the above example, we can learn two more points:

For any specific line, if the slope is , then it will also have the slope of where n is any positive integer.

The angle measured in anti-clock wise direction is taken as positive while the angle in clock wise direction is
considered as negative.

If the inclination of any line from the positive x axis is then its slope is given by and is generally represented by m.
Slope is also called as the Gradient.

Thus,

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Note:- can only lie in [0, 180 ) or [0 to -180 ).

Assume, two given points A (x 1, y1) and B(x2, y2) given in the
figure and a line passing through these points. As per the
definition of slope, we can write

Important points related to slope

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Since the slope is very important parameter in the straight line, we must take care of its all the important points.

Since the slope = (considering the to be positive i.e. angle is measured in the anti-clock wise direction) and
thus the slope can positive or negative depending upon the quadrant of angle.

As we know from the basic trigonometry that the is positive in first and the third quadrant. While it is negative in
second and fourth quadrant. Thus, on the basis of this, we may say:

1. If 0 < < 90

Slope will be positive as is positve

2. If 90 < < 180

Slope will be negative as is positve

If , which means the inclination towards x axis is zero. This will represent a straight line parallel to x
axis.

Whereas, if = 90, then the line will be perpendicular to x -axis or parallel to the y axis.

For the Points A(x 1, y1) and B(x2, y2), the slope will calculated as:

How to find the angle between two Straight Lines?

If the equation of straight line is expressed in the form:

Y = mx + c

Then, the variable m is called as the Slope.

Let the equations of two straight lines be

L1: Y1 = m 1x + c1 and L2: Y2 = m 2x + c2

Let and be the angles corresponding to slopes m 1 and m2 respectively. Refer the diagram to understand the
same.

That is, we have,

tan = m1

tan = m2

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Then the angle between them will be and , as
represented in the figure.

Using the exterior angle property of the triangle, we can

write

=+

Or,

=-

Now we can apply tan both sides,

tan = tan (- )

Using tan (A B) formula now,

On substituting the values of and from the above, we get

& the other angle will be

Thus, from equation (1) and (2), we can say, The angle between two straight
lines will be

What is the condition for the lines to be parallel?

If the two lines are parallel, then the angle between them will be zero.

Thus, In equation (3), replace

Since, tan 0 = 0

Therefore, m 1 = m 2

If L 1: a 1x + b1y + c1 = 0 and L 2: a 2x + b2y + c2 = 0 are parallel then

m1 = m2

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What is the Condition for the lines to be perpendicular?
If the two lines are perpendicular, then the angle between them will be right angle or 90.

Thus, In equation (3), replace

Since, tan 90 =

Therefore, 1 + m 1m 2 = 0 or m 1m 2 = -1

If L 1: a 1x + b1y + c1 = 0 and L 2: a 2x + b2y + c2 = 0 are parallel, then

m 1m 2 = -1

Equation of line parallel and perpendicular to a given line

If we are given a straight-line ax + by + c = 0,

Then, the equation of line parallel to the given line will be

ax + by + = 0

and the equation of line perpendicular to the given line will be

bx ay + = 0.

Where, is a constant whose value can be determined from the addition condition given in the problem.

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