Jon P. answered • 02/18/15
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Well, that's a good question. Technically two quantities are proportional if one is always a constant multiple of the other, and from a strictly mathematical point of view, there is nothing to stop the constant from being negative.
However in practical terms, the concept of proportionality is generally used on quantities that are non-negative, such as speed, distance, weight, dollar value, etc. In a sense there are no negatives in nature, so no two real-world quantities can ever be in negative proportion to each other.
On the other hand, it isn't hard to come up with examples where you could use a negative proportion.
Jon P.
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There really isn't any such thing as a negative temperature. They're only negative because we created temperatures scales (C and F) with arbitrary points as 0. The natural temperature scale starts at absolute 0 and you can't have a negative temperature on that scale. And because the scales we use have an arbitrary 0 point, there really isn't anything that's going to be proportional to temperature as measured on those scales.
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02/19/15
Juniper F.
I didn't know that! Thank you a lot! :)
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02/19/15
Jas K.
According to Bohr' s atomic theory , Is the following statement correct? .. Potential energy of an electron is directly proportional to Z²/n² ?I am unable to understand it as the constant in this proportionality is negative ! So will the statement be correct or incorrect?
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06/09/21
Juniper F.
02/18/15