Question

What is a direct variation?

Answer 1

Direct Variation. Directly Proportional. A relationship between two variables in which one is a constant multiple of the other. In particular, when one variable changes the other changes in proportion to the first. If b is directly proportional to a, the equation is of the form b = ka (where k is a constant).

Resource: Google

Answer 2

Direct variation is the relationship between two variables such that the variables have a constant ratio, k, where k is not equal to 0.

K is called the constant of variation.

Suppose that are variables are x and y and y varies directly with x. We can say that the ratio of y to x is equal to k where k is not equal to 0.

We can also rewrite this formula as y = kx where k is not equal to 0.

It's important to understand that we can use these two ratios interchangeably depending on what we're solving for in the problem.