Math Morals (Part 6): Proportions

We get a proportion when we put two ratios or rates equal to each other. So, (1/3) = (100/300) is a proportion where 1/3 is a ratio of 1:3 and 100/300 is a ratio of 100:300, but since both ratios have the same value, we put them equal to each other to make a proportion. So basically, a proportion is an equality statement of ratios or rates.

Now that we know what proportions are, let us try to understand how they relate to our lives. Let us, as an example, consider the emotion of happiness. Proportions show us that to achieve the same happiness, not every one needs the same amount of trigger. Someone who only has a small portion of lets say experience in life, only requires a few things to be happy. So for example, a baby can be made happy by simply laughing with him. But some adult who has been through a lot of experiences may needs a lot of things to make him happy, like his kids, family, cars etc. So a kid's happiness may be compared to achieving the value of 1/3 only by a small thing (say the value of 1) while the adult might need a 100 portions of the same thing to achieve the same value of one-third (which is an example of the state of happiness. Therefore, remember that what makes others happy may not necessary make us happy as well. In fact, sometimes, if we get what others have of happiness, we may not be able to handle it. Since someone who only has a total carrying capacity of 3 cannot carry more than that.

Extrapolating from the same principle, other emotions also may also follow the same principle. So it may be extremely easy to make some people angry while others may hardly ever get angry their entire lives. This is because some people are more calm in their nature and have more nerves to handle difficult situations than others. And the same principle follows for the rest of the emotions as well.

Also, let us consider the rich and the poor. Let us say that a poor person only has 3 dollars and the rich person has 300 dollars. If the poor makes a charity of 3 dollars while the rich makes the charity of 3 dollars as well, this is not an equal loss for both. The poor lost a third of his wealth while the rich lost only 1/300th of his wealth. Therefore, the rich has to spend much more to equal the ratio of how much the poor spent or sacrificed.

Also, proportions show us that rich people can take on more luxury because they have more cash and therefore more freedom to do so.

Proportions can also be used to understand the balance between challenges and skills in every human's life. The more the skills one possesses in a field, the more challenges he can take on in his field. (to understand this, think of 1/3 having one challenge, but 100/300 having 100 challenges, or 1/3 having a challenge of difficulty level one but 100/300 having a challenge of difficulty level 100). But if one (with a lot of skill) does not have many challenges in his life, then he is prone to boredom. And if one takes on more challenges than his skills, then he is prone to anxiety and stress. (This idea derived from the flow theory presented by Sir Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

So to summarize, proportions tell us that it's not about how much, but how as per our capacities. And therefore, it's not about the quantity, but the quality of what we do.