When a relationship between two numbers, such as ‘a’ and ‘b’, is expressed in terms of their quotient (a/b), it is called the ratio of one number to the other.
“Proportion is a statement that two ratios are equal.”
A biologist can calculate how many birds could get malaria, when he allowed infected mosquitoes to bite 100 Healthy sparrows. In one experiment, he noted that when he allowed mosquitoes to bite 20 sparrows, 14 out of them got malaria. By using proportion rule:
100 : X = 20:14
X/100 = 14/20
X = (100 × 14)/20
X = 70
It means that 70 out of 100 healthy sparrows would get malaria.
It is a field of research that examines the mathematical representation of biological systems.
One key role of mathematics in biology is to create mathematical models of biological systems.
