Inverse relationship

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An inverse or negative relationship is a mathematical relationship in which one variable decreases as another increases. For example, there is an inverse relationship between education and unemployment — that is, as education increases, the rate of unemployment decreases.

Inverse relationships and their counterpart, direct relationships, are widely used in the physical sciences to describe the relationship between two variables in an equation.

Inverse relationships are also used in ecology when describing the relationship between two species. An inverse relationship is when the population of one species increases and causes the population of another species to decrease.