In the context of proportional relationships, what does 'inversely proportional' mean?

In the context of proportional relationships, 'inversely proportional' means that as one value increases, the other value decreases in such a way that the product of the two values remains constant. This relationship can be expressed mathematically as ( y = \frac{k}{x} ), where ( k ) is a constant. For example, if you have a fixed amount of work that needs to be completed, if you increase the number of workers (one value), the amount of time it takes to complete the work (the other value) will decrease, assuming the efficiency remains the same. Thus, these values move in opposite directions to maintain that constant product. The key characteristic of this relationship is that one value rises while the other falls, clearly demonstrating that they are inversely related.