Proportion

Business Math
 Specific Learning Outcomes

At the end of the unit, the learner will be able to:

 write proportions illustrating real-life situations;
 define and give examples of a proportion;
 use the fundamental property of proportions to show if two ratios form a
proportion and to solve a proportion;
 solve a word problem that may be translated as a proportion;
 recognize if a proportion is direct, is an inverse proportion, or is partitive;
 solve problems involving direct proportions, inverse proportions, and partitive
proportions.
 Carl received cash from his relatives on his
birthday. He got EUR 20 from his mother, USD 12
from his sister, and JPY 2000 from his father. He
was told that USD 2 is equivalent to PhP92.20, USD
10 is equivalent to EUR 10, and PhP1 is equivalent
to JPY2.34. How much money does he have in
pesos?
Many real-world situations demonstrate proportions.
Some of these you may not even be aware of.
Some situations/examples are the following:

A. Mark reads 10 pages of a manuscript in 15 minutes. At

this rate, how many pages will he read in 25 minutes?
B. When baking, 3 cups of flour require 5 eggs. If you
make cookies requiring 5 cups of flour, how many eggs
will you need?
C. Marty is paid PhP880 per two hours of lecture. In a
week, he lectures for 9 hours. How much would he be
paid?
Define what a proportion is.

A statement that two ratios are equal is

called a proportion.

Each of the four numbers in a proportion is

called a term of the proportion.
Example 1:
Fundamental Property of Proportions

In any proportion, the product of the means

is equal to the product of the extremes. That
is, the cross products of the terms are equal.
In symbols,
Example 2:

We use the Fundamental Property of

7 14
Proportions to verify that =
8 16
Equating the cross products of the terms
gives 7 x 16 = 8 x 14. That is, 112 = 112.
Example 3:
Example 4:

 We also use the Fundamental Property of Proportions

to find the missing term in a proportion as shown
below.
Example 5:
QUIZ

 Here are some items which can be solved readily by equation

the product of the means to the product of the extremes: