Inverse relationship

Inverse relationship

An inverse or negative relationship is a mathematical relationship in which one variable decreases as another increases. For example, there is an inverse relationship between education and unemployment — that is, as education increases, the rate of unemployment decreases.

Inverse relationships and their counterpart, "direct relationships", are widely used in the physical sciences to describe the relationship between two variables in an equation. Oftentimes they can be expressed as "a" α 1/"b"."

Inverse relationships are also often used in conversations and imprecise judgments, such as the quip attributed to Otto von Bismarck saying that "the less you concern yourself over how it is that sausages and laws get made, the better you'll probably sleep at night."

Inverse relationships are also used in ecology when describing the relationship between two species. An inverse relationship is when the population of one species increases and causes the population of another species to decrease.

ee also

* Inverse relation
* Direct relationship


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