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geometry senior
Problem
Line has equation and goes through . Line has equation and meets line at point . Line has positive slope, goes through point , and meets at point . The area of is . What is the slope of ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
Line has the equation when rearranged. Substituting for , we find that line will meet this line at point , which is point . We call the base and the altitude from to the line connecting and , , the height. The altitude has length , and the area of . Since , . Because has positive slope, it will meet to the right of , and the point to the right of is . passes through and , and thus has slope .
Final answer
B