An inverse or negative relationship is a mathematical relationship in which one variable, say y, decreases as another, say x, increases. For a linear (straight-line) relation, this can be expressed as y = a-bx, where -b is a constant value less than zero and a is a constant. 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.
In economic graphing, two variables are said to have an inverse relationship if the graph line slopes downward to the right.
Famous quotes containing the words inverse and/or relationship:
“Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the force of the soul. The spirit sports with time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Only men of moral and mental force, of a patriotic regard for the relationship of the two races, can be of real service as ministers in the South. Less theology and more of human brotherhood, less declamation and more common sense and love for truth, must be the qualifications of the new ministry that shall yet save the race from the evils of false teaching.”
—Fannie Barrier Williams (1855–1944)