Word Problems on Ratios, Rates and Proportions
 

Proportion and percentage change



In the following, we will look at the proportion and percentage change separately:


Proportion



We encounter proportions in everyday life (e.g., squeezing juices, building a house, travel and speed e.t.c.). In the case of problems arising from proportions, there are usually two quantities that are in a simple relationship with each other. This relationship can be:

  • Directly proportional

  • Inversely proportional


Let’s look at both relationships in more detail.


Direct proportion



Two quantities are directly proportional to each other if:

  • one quantity increases or decreases by certain times while at the same time the second quantity increases or decreases by exact same times.


Example

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Inverse proportion



Two quantities are inversely proportional to each other if:

  • one quantity increases by certain times while at the same time the second quantity decreases by exact same times or vice versa.


Example

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Change



We also encounter a changes in bills in our everyday life (price increases, price reductions, e.t.c.). Most often we are always interested in what the relative change is.


Relative change



Relative change is a measure of how much a quantity has changed in relative to its original value and it is calculated as:




Example

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Relative change can also be written as percentages.


Percentage Change



The result of the relative change can be expressed as a fraction and also in percentages. In other words, percentage change is the representation of a relative change as a percentage.


The easiest way to do this is by using the formula:


Percentage Change:




where c represents the change, i the initial amount.



If we denote the amount of percentages by p, then in we can say:




Let's use the above formula in the following example below:


Example

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Relationship between relative change and percentage change



There is a link between the percentage change and the relative change.


Let’s obtain the relationship between the two using the formula for relative change :


material editor: Abdullateef Adekunle Olaoye