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Secondary 2 · Mathematics
Arithmetic · Proportionality

Direct Proportionality

Before you start, make sure you know: Ratio (Secondary Year 1)

At the tortilla shop they charge 36 pesos for 2 kilos. If Ximena needs 5 kilos for the posada, how much will she pay? There's no need to guess: when one quantity is multiplied and the other one is too, there is a sure method for calculating it. That is direct proportionality.

What is direct proportionality?

At a custom print shop, 3 printed T-shirts cost 540 pesos. Look at the table of proportional variation and check that the price/T-shirts quotient is always the same:

T-shirts 3 6 9 15
Price (pesos) 540 1,080 1,620 2,700

Here $k = 540 \div 3 = 180$ pesos per T-shirt, and also $1{,}080 \div 6 = 180$. It is written $y = kx$.

Cartesian graph showing the pairs of values of T-shirts and price lined up on a straight line that passes through the point (0, 0). T-shirtspesos always passes through (0, 0)
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State which of the following pairs of quantities are directly proportional. Briefly justify your answer: a) The number of people who enter a museum and the money…

State which of the following pairs of quantities are directly proportional. Briefly justify your answer:

  1. a) The number of people who enter a museum and the money collected from ticket sales.
  2. b) A person's age and their height.
  3. c) The weight of the apples you buy and the total price to pay.
  4. d) The speed of a car and the time taken to travel a fixed distance.
Solve
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In a sports shop, all T-shirts of the same model have a price proportional to the quantity bought. Copy and complete the following table in your notebook and calculate…

In a sports shop, all T-shirts of the same model have a price proportional to the quantity bought. Copy and complete the following table in your notebook and calculate the constant of proportionality $k$ (price per T-shirt).

Number of T-shirts $2$ $3$ $5$ $10$
Price ($\$$) $24$
2 T-shirts $24 1 T-shirt k = ? $ ÷ 2 ÷ 2
Solve
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State, giving reasons, which of the following pairs of quantities are directly proportional: a) The number of concert tickets and the total price to pay (without fixed…

State, giving reasons, which of the following pairs of quantities are directly proportional:

  1. a) The number of concert tickets and the total price to pay (without fixed booking fees).
  2. b) A person's age and their height in centimeters.
  3. c) The weight of loose apples bought and the cost of the purchase.
  4. d) The speed of a car and the time taken to cover a fixed distance.
  5. e) The number of pages in a book and the time taken to read it (assuming a constant reading speed).
Solve

Unit value (reduction to the unit)

Diagram of the unit value method: divide to get what corresponds to one unit and multiply for the desired amount. 2 L white 500 mL tint ÷2, ×6 6 L white 1.5 L tint
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If a faucet pours $15$ liters of water every $3$ minutes, how many liters will it pour if it is kept running for $10$ minutes? Solve it using the unitary method…

If a faucet pours $15$ liters of water every $3$ minutes, how many liters will it pour if it is kept running for $10$ minutes? Solve it using the unitary method (calculating first how much it pours in one minute).

Solve
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Marta has paid $90$ pesos for $3$ boxes of felt-tip pens for her drawing project. If she needs to buy $5$ more boxes for her group members, how much money will those $5$…

Marta has paid $90$ pesos for $3$ boxes of felt-tip pens for her drawing project. If she needs to buy $5$ more boxes for her group members, how much money will those $5$ extra boxes cost her?

3 boxes $90 1 box $30 5 boxes ? $ ÷ 3 × 5 ÷ 3 × 5
Solve
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A forest fire monitoring drone flies at a constant speed. Control center records show that the drone covered $10.5$ kilometers in the first $15$ minutes of flight. a)…

A forest fire monitoring drone flies at a constant speed. Control center records show that the drone covered $10.5$ kilometers in the first $15$ minutes of flight.

t₀ = 0 min t₁ = 15 min d = 10.5 km v = const v
  1. a) What distance will the drone cover if it maintains the same speed for a full hour?
  2. b) If the drone needs to cover a total distance of $63$ km, how many minutes will it take to complete the mission?
Solve

Rule of three

If you prefer to set up a proportion, it is solved with cross products: this is the rule of three.

Cross products diagram: the proportion 5 over 1750 equals 8 over x, with crossing arrows showing which numbers are multiplied. 5 1750 = 8 x 5 · x = 1750 · 8 x = 2,800 pesos
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To make a cake for $6$ people, $300$ grams of flour are needed. If we want to invite $15$ people and have everyone eat the same share of cake, how much flour will we…

To make a cake for $6$ people, $300$ grams of flour are needed. If we want to invite $15$ people and have everyone eat the same share of cake, how much flour will we need?

k 6 people 15 people 300 g flour x g flour × 50 × 50
Solve
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A video game takes up $12$ GB of space and took $8$ minutes to download with a stable connection. If the next game you want to download takes up $18$ GB and the download…

A video game takes up $12$ GB of space and took $8$ minutes to download with a stable connection. If the next game you want to download takes up $18$ GB and the download speed is the same, how many minutes will the download take?

Solve
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To prepare a specific shade of orange paint, an artist mixes $150$ ml of red paint with $225$ ml of yellow paint. a) How many milliliters of red paint will they need if…

To prepare a specific shade of orange paint, an artist mixes $150$ ml of red paint with $225$ ml of yellow paint.

  1. a) How many milliliters of red paint will they need if they want to use $600$ ml of yellow paint to get the same shade?
  2. b) If the artist decides to make a total mixture of $1$ liter ($1000$ ml), what amount of each color should they add while maintaining the original proportion?
Solve
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To dye a batch of cotton T-shirts, a workshop uses a mixture of concentrated dye and water. The recipe states that for every $2.5\text{ liters}$ of water,…

To dye a batch of cotton T-shirts, a workshop uses a mixture of concentrated dye and water. The recipe states that for every $2.5\text{ liters}$ of water, $150\text{ ml}$ of dye must be added.

If the workshop has a tank with a capacity of $60\text{ liters}$ and wants to fill it while maintaining exactly the same proportion, what quantity of concentrated dye and what quantity of water should be mixed? (Be careful: the final volume of the tank is the sum of both liquids).

Solve

Problems with scales, figures, and sharing

The same idea shows up in many contexts.

Figures and scales. The perimeter of a regular hexagon is proportional to its side, with $k = 6$. On a plan at a scale of $1:50$, each centimeter in the drawing is 50 cm in real life: the real measurement is the one on the plan multiplied by 50. Watch the units: convert (cm to m) at the end.

Sharing. Sharing an amount in a directly proportional way means giving each person according to their data. You add up the data, calculate $k$, and multiply.

When the data are in different units, convert first: for example, 150 cm and 18 m are compared by converting everything to meters.

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The perimeter of a regular hexagon is directly proportional to the length of its side. If a hexagon whose side measures $4$ cm has a perimeter of $24$ cm, calculate the…

The perimeter of a regular hexagon is directly proportional to the length of its side. If a hexagon whose side measures $4$ cm has a perimeter of $24$ cm, calculate the perimeter of another regular hexagon whose side measures $7.5$ cm.

P = 6 · L L₁ = 4 cm P₁ = 24 cm Proportional L₂ = 7.5 cm P₂ = ?
Solve
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On a floor plan of a room with a scale of $1:50$, the length of the bed measures $4$ cm. What is the actual length of the bed expressed in meters? (Remember that a scale…

On a floor plan of a room with a scale of $1:50$, the length of the bed measures $4$ cm. What is the actual length of the bed expressed in meters? (Remember that a scale of $1:50$ means that $1$ cm on the drawing is equivalent to $50$ cm in reality).

Solve
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On a floor plan of a house drawn to a scale of $1:250$, the living room has a length of $3.2$ cm and a width of $2.4$ cm. a) Calculate the actual dimensions of the…

On a floor plan of a house drawn to a scale of $1:250$, the living room has a length of $3.2$ cm and a width of $2.4$ cm.

3.2 cm 2.4 cm LIVING ROOM SCALE 1:250
  1. a) Calculate the actual dimensions of the living room in meters.
  2. b) Calculate the actual area of the living room in square meters.
Solve
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Three siblings decide to divide the $2\,880$ pesos they received as a gift from their grandparents in direct proportion to their ages, which are $10$, $12$ and $14$…

Three siblings decide to divide the $2\,880$ pesos they received as a gift from their grandparents in direct proportion to their ages, which are $10$, $12$ and $14$ years old respectively. How much money does each person get?

Solve
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Three friends decide to set up a video game streaming channel. At the end of the first month, they have earned $\$1\,260…

Three friends decide to set up a video game streaming channel. At the end of the first month, they have earned $\$1\,260$ in advertising revenue. They agree to divide the money in direct proportion to the hours each of them has spent recording and editing content.

Marcos spent $12$ hours, Lucía spent twice as long as Marcos, and Sergio spent as many hours as half of what Marcos and Lucía spent together. Calculate how much money each person gets and determine the constant of proportionality $k$ (money per hour worked).

INGRESOS TOTALES: $1260 Hours 0 12 18 24 Marcos 12h Lucía 24h = 2 × 12h Sergio 18h = (12+24)/2 Total: 54h k = ? $/h
Solve
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A lighthouse casts a shadow of $18\text{ meters}$ on the ground. At that same moment, a vertical post $2.5\text{ meters}$ high located near the lighthouse casts a shadow…

A lighthouse casts a shadow of $18\text{ meters}$ on the ground. At that same moment, a vertical post $2.5\text{ meters}$ high located near the lighthouse casts a shadow of $150\text{ cm}$.

  • a) Calculate the height of the lighthouse.

  • b) If the sun lowers and the shadow of the post increases by an additional $30\text{ cm}$, how long will the new shadow of the lighthouse be?

H = ? 2.5 m 18 m +x 1.5 m +0.3m
Solve

The graph: a line through the origin

If you plot the pairs of values of a direct proportionality, the points fall on a straight line and that line passes through $(0, 0)$: with no T-shirts, you pay nothing. The slant of the line is the constant $k$: the larger $k$ is, the steeper the line.

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A smartphone fast charger is able to charge $18\%$ of the battery in just $12$ minutes. If the charging speed remains constant: a) What percentage of battery will have…

A smartphone fast charger is able to charge $18\%$ of the battery in just $12$ minutes. If the charging speed remains constant:

  1. a) What percentage of battery will have charged after half an hour ($30$ minutes)?
  2. b) How much total time (in minutes and seconds) will it take for the phone to go from $0\%$ to $100\%$ charge?
Solve
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A recycling company pays $0.65$ pesos for each kilogram of aluminum cans handed in. A group of students collected cans during the month and weighed them in batches: a)…

A recycling company pays $0.65$ pesos for each kilogram of aluminum cans handed in. A group of students collected cans during the month and weighed them in batches:

Aluminum Cans Mass x (kg) Payment Received Amount y ($) Price ($/kg) · 0.65 Proportionality Function y = 0.65 · x
  1. a) How much money will they receive for a batch that weighs $8.4$ kg?
  2. b) If by the end of the campaign they have raised a total of $27.30$ pesos, how many kilograms of aluminum did they manage to recycle in total?
Solve
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The following graph shows the relationship between the mass of a precious metal and its market value. Note that it is a direct proportion function: a) Find the constant…

The following graph shows the relationship between the mass of a precious metal and its market value. Note that it is a direct proportion function:

  • a) Find the constant of proportionality $k$, which represents the price per gram.

  • b) If a piece of jewellery contains $15\%$ of impurities (mass that has no value) and weighs $24\text{ g}$ in total, what is the value of the pure metal it contains based on the graph?

Mass (g) Value ($) 200 600 800 0 5 15 20 25 V = k·m 10 450
Solve

Back to the beginning: at the tortilla shop, $k = 36 \div 2 = 18$ pesos per kilo, so 5 kilos cost $5 \times 18 = 90$ pesos.

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A 3D printer filament manufacturing company knows that the length of extruded filament is directly proportional to the operating time of the extruder machine. If $45$…

A 3D printer filament manufacturing company knows that the length of extruded filament is directly proportional to the operating time of the extruder machine. If $45$ meters of filament of a given thickness are produced in $15$ minutes:

  • a) How many kilometers of filament will be manufactured if the machine works without interruption for a full working day of $8$ hours?

  • b) If the production cost is $\$2.40$ for each decameter ($10\text{ m}$) of filament, what will the total production value be after those $8$ hours?

Solve
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On a hiking map of the Sierra de Guadarrama, the distance between two shelters is $12.5\text{ cm}$. We know that the map scale is $1:50\,000$. Two hikers decide to do…

On a hiking map of the Sierra de Guadarrama, the distance between two shelters is $12.5\text{ cm}$. We know that the map scale is $1:50\,000$. Two hikers decide to do this route. If their average speed is $4\text{ km/h}$, calculate how long it will take them to get from one shelter to the other, expressing the result in hours and minutes.

N Shelter A Shelter B d = 12.5 cm Scale 1:50 000 v = 4 km/h
Solve
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A municipality wants to encourage the use of clean energy and distributes a grant of $\$300\,000…

A municipality wants to encourage the use of clean energy and distributes a grant of $\$300\,000$ among three neighborhood associations that have installed solar panels. The division is made in direct proportion to the area of panels installed.

Community A has installed $120\text{ m}^2$. Community B has installed $25\%$ more than Community A. Community C has installed $60\%$ of the sum of the areas of communities A and B combined. Calculate how much money each community receives.

Solve
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An assembly line produces a constant number of electronic components every hour. It is known that by working $5$ days at a rate of $8$ hours per day, they have…

An assembly line produces a constant number of electronic components every hour. It is known that by working $5$ days at a rate of $8$ hours per day, they have manufactured a total of $14\,000$ components.

If due to an urgent order they need to manufacture $25\,200$ components in the next $6$ days, how many hours per day must the machines work to meet the deadline, assuming that the hourly production rate does not change?

Solve

Summary

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