What does the math symbol $\propto$ mean? I came across this symbol in my engineering class and I have never seen it before. Anyone know this?


It typically means proportional to. Such that
If $$y=cx$$ for some constant $c$ we say 
$$y\propto x$$ so that when x grows, y grows proportionally by the ratio $c$
Alternatively inverse proportionality is when 
$$y=c\frac{1}{x}$$ so that when x gets smaller, y gets bigger proportionally by $c$
$$y\propto \frac{1}{x}$$ to my knowledge there isn’t a symbol specifically for inverse proportionality and $$y\propto \frac{1}{x}$$ is used instead 
