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What's the Constant of Variation?

Why is it called a constant of variation?

Summary

  1. y=kx is the general form for writing a direct variation
  2. 'y' and 'x' are variables, while 'k' stands for a constant
  3. You can make a table to figure out the ordered pairs that satisfy the example y=2x
  4. Solve the direct variation equation for the constant of variation by dividing y values by x values
  5. xy=k is the general form for writing an inverse variation
  6. With inverse variation, you can find the constant of variation by multiplying x and y values, instead of dividing them

Notes

    1. 'y' and 'x' are variables, while 'k' stands for a constant
    1. 'k' stands for a constant, and is the constant of variation
    2. Notice that y=2x is in the form of y=kx
    1. Notice that y=2x is in the form of y=kx
    2. 'k' stands for a constant, and is the constant of variation
    1. Notice that y=2x is in the form of y=kx, where k is the constant of variation
    1. To build up the table, we just plug x-values into y=2x, and then write in the x- and y-values that we find!
    1. To build up the table, we just plug x-values into y=2x, and then write in the x- and y-values that we find!
    2. Notice we're just doubling x to find y : )
    1. Our example is y=2x, and the equation for direct variation is y=kx
    2. That makes our constant of variation k=2
    1. Notice that y=2x is in the form of y=kx, where k is the constant of variation
    2. When you just look at the equation, you can tell that the 2 is in the place of the 'k'. That's one way of figuring out the constant of variation:)
    1. We solved y=2x for 2 by dividing by x
    2. So if you have a table of values for a direct variation equation, dividing y by x will give you the constant of variation!
    1. Dividing y by x will get you the constant of variation in a direct variation problem!
    1. y=kx is the general form for writing a direct variation
    2. 'y' and 'x' are variables, while 'k' stands for a constant
    3. This means that if we have an ordered pair for our inverse variation, then we can multiply the x- and y-values together to get our constant of inverse variation