Melissa has two chickens.

Question

Melissa has two chickens. Chicken A produces 3 eggs every 2 days. Chicken B produces 5 eggs every 3 days. In each case the number of eggs produced is proportional to the number of days. What is the constant of proportionality of each chicken. What does it represent? Which chicken produces, on average, more eggs per day?

Answer 1

You can answer the third question first by noting that

Chicken A lays 3eggs/2 day = 1.5 eggs/day and Chicken B lays 5eggs/3 days = 1.67 eggs/day

If E stands for eggs, D stands for days, & k is the proportionality constant:

For Chicken A: E = kD or k = E/D = 3/2 = 1.5 eggs/day

For Chicken B: E = kD or k = E/D = 5/3 = 1.67 eggs/day

As you can see from the first example, the k is actually the rate of (constant) change