Question

Joaquin has a total of 12 1/2 hours of football practice in a five day school week. The equation y =5/2x can be used to represent the situation.

What is the constant of proportionality and what does it represent in the context of the problem?

Answer 1

The constant of proportionality is 5/2.

It represents the number of hours Joaquin practices per day.

Explanation:

The constant of proportionality in the equation y = 5/2x is 5/2. It represents the number of hours Joaquin practices per day.

In the equation, y represents the total number of hours Joaquin practices and x represents the number of days. So, the constant of proportionality (5/2) tells us that for every 1 day of practice, Joaquin practices 5/2 hours.

We can also see this by plugging in some values. If Joaquin practices for 5 days, then the equation becomes:

`\sf y = (5)/(2)* 5 = 12.5`

This is the same number of hours that Joaquin has practiced in total (12.5).

Therefore, the constant of proportionality is 5/2 and it represents the number of hours Joaquin practices per day.