Which of the following functions is most likely to have the smallest value for y if x is large? (Assume k is positive.)

A direct variation has the form y = kx, so its value grows as x gets large. An inverse variation has the form y = k/x, which gets small as x grows; using a small positive k makes y smaller still. Therefore, the inverse variation function with a small value of k is most likely to have the smallest y-value.

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