What is a mathematical relationship?

Answer 1

In a linear relationship such as represented in the equation x= b+ay. The relationship between the x and y is a direct variation. This basically means that in the above equation/situation the value of the y variable is proportional to the value of the x variable. In other words the x and y increase or decrease proportionately. If the x value decreases the y value decreases. If the x value increases so does the y value.

Now in a quadratic relationship it is a little different in that this kind of function is actually in the shape of a parabola. The equation for this relationship is ax2 + bx + c = y. The parabolic relationship exists when one variable depends on the square of another and this relationship is often expressed in saying that the y variable varies directly with the square of the x variable.