Table of Contents
Define Proportional
Representation
In a proportional representation system, the number of seats a party wins in a legislature is proportional to the number of votes the party receives. This means that if a party wins 30% of the votes, it would win about 30% of the seats in the legislature.
This differs from a winner-take-all system, where the party with the most votes wins all the seats in the legislature.
Proportional Examples
A proportional example is a situation in which two variables are inversely proportional to each other. For example, if the area of a rectangle is doubled, then the length of the rectangle is halved. In this case, the two variables are inversely proportional to each other.
How to Know if Two Quantities are Proportional or Not?
A proportional relationship is when two quantities are related in a way that the change in one quantity is always associated with a change in the other quantity. In mathematical terms, this is expressed as y is directly proportional to x. This means that as x increases, y also increases and as x decreases, y also decreases.
To determine if two quantities are proportional, you can use a graph. On a graph, you would plot the points for each quantity and then connect the points with a line. If the line is a straight line, then the quantities are proportional. Alternatively, you can use a table to compare the values of each quantity. If the values are always the same or very close together, then the quantities are proportional.
on Proportional Examples
In the following table, the first column is the quantity of voters, the second column is the proportion of the vote that each candidate receives, and the third column is the total number of votes.
Candidate Votes Proportion A 30 25% B 25 20% C 30 25% D 10 8%
A receives 30 votes, which is 25% of the total number of votes (120).
B receives 25 votes, which is 20% of the total number of votes (120).
C receives 30 votes, which is 25% of the total number of votes (120).
D receives 10 votes, which is 8% of the total number of votes (120).
