Thies video by HEGARTYMATHS goes over some word problems based on inverse proportionality.
Summary
Word problems involving proportionality will usually give you one set of points and ask you to find part of a second set given only some of the information. Using the first set of points you solve for the constant k. Then, with k and part of the second set, you can find the final part of the second set.
Let's work through the first problem together.
y is inversely proportional to x. If y=10 when x=2, find:(i) A Formula for y in terms of x(ii) y when x=5(iii) x when y=8
The first step is to write our basic formula. We know that basic inverse formula has the form y=k⋅x1, or y=xk.
We know that y=10 when x=2. Let's plug those in then solve for k.
y1020=xk=2k=k
Our constant, k, is 20. We're going to use k=20 and x=5 to solve for y in the second part.
yyy=xk=520=4
When x=5, y=4.
We use the constant k=20 to solve the second part as well.
y88xxx=xk=x20=20=820=25 or 2.5
Here's a graphic with another example!
Solution
First, let's set up the base variation.
y14=xk=7k
We can solve this for k to find our constant.
1414⋅7k=7k=k=98
Now we can use the second set of data to solve.
y1616xxx=xk=x98=98=1698=849 or 6.125