83.9k views
1 vote
Terry saved $24 and is saving an additional $9 each week. Is this proportional?

User Anku Singh
by
3.5k points

1 Answer

0 votes

The question is asking about some proportionality between unknown quantities, so I would imagine they want to know if there is a proportionality between the TOTAL savings and the ammount saved each week.

The TOTAL savings can be expressed as:

TOTAL = 24 + 9 * x

(where "x" is the number of weeks)

so in such case, there is NO proportionality between the total saved and the amount saved per week, because there is a fixed term "24" interfering with the proportionality.

If it was:

TOTAL = 9 * x

then, there is a direct proportionality, but not in the case described.

In the case of the question about a leaky faucet dripping 12 ml every minute, there IS a PROPORTIONALITY between the TOTAL amount leaked and the time (in minutes)

TOTAL = 12 * time

so you see that there is a constant of proportionality (12) that relates the TWO quantities: Total leaked and time. In this case there is no extra added term as in the previous case.

User Ewein
by
3.2k points