Adjustable percentages in a pie chart format?

Question

Hi,

I am not very math literate. I have a some question about percentages. I am not sure if my logic or math usage is correct on this. Can you please give me feedback?
Question 1:  Let's say there was a pie chart that three parentage sections inside. For illustrations sake lets refer to the sections as representing colors. The pie chart starts by representing 100% a default state (with no other categories)..For example, indicating something is 100% pure white. However, there are two other categories that can be introduced (represented by the two other percentages), lets call the percentage categories red and blue. As each one grows the default state changes. For example, if I start with the pie chart at 100% white, but then add 5% red and 0% blue the pie chart would be 95% white, 5% red, 0% blue. If that were to increase to 10% red, 5% blue, that would mean the white percentage of the pie chart would be 85% white, is that correct?
Question 2: Once all the white percentage is filled up in the pie chart by increasing percentages of red and blue, it is assumed that white no longer exists in that reality and the percentage for white is then 0% correct?
Question 3: Is there any reality where one could say once red and blue percentages surpass 50% that a choice could be made to then make white percentage a separate but included entity. For example, if the percentages of red and blue continue to increase causing white to decrease, can I at some point say once white percentage is less than 50 percent, I can then choose to make white as an added property at 100% continually in the background as red and blue percentages increase in the white / red / blue ratio? Like effectively saying. once red and blue increase to a certain level, I will make a 100% pie chart as an addition? Like saying once white is less than 50% there is an option to add it as a continuous additional property in the background regardless of the adjustable percentages do?
Finally, what do you call a pie chart with percentages? Is it proper or improper to call it a ratio? I understand that a ratio usually signifies numbers not in percentage form. Yet, can a pie chart of 3 adjustable percentages be described as a ratio and it be proper in mathematics to do so? If not, what is the proper term for 3 adjustable percentages within a pie chart?
Thanks

Answer 1

Question 1: The three percentages must add up to 100% represented by the complete circle (the whole pie), so, yes, with the increases in the percentages in red and blue, 85%=(100-10-5)% would be represented in white.

Question 2: That's correct. White is reduced to 0% (so it doesn't have a segment at all) when red and blue sum to 100%.

Question 3: A pie chart is just a visual representative for comparing the proportions of various properties which share a dependence. Blue, red and white properties are connected because the sum of their percentages is always 100%. This means you can't separate them because it would violate the requirement. However, you could subdivide each segment into smaller segments. One way to do this in a pie chart representation is to keep the colours as they are but create segments in different shadings of each colour. The shades of red, blue and white are quite distinguishable from one another, so it's easy to relate the shaded segments to their "parent" colour. So, for example, white could be subdivided into shades of grey. It would then be possible to see the relation of each shaded segment to the pie as a whole, but also see it in relation to its parent segment. For example, a light grey segment in the white zone could be seen as a percentage of the whole 100% but also be seen as part of the white segment. Using labels within the pie chart you can label the grey segments as percentages of the white (for example, 25%W) and similarly with the red and blue subsegments. It's important that red, blue and white (with their individual shaded subsegments) are still in the same pie chart if the chart is to be meaningful. Of course, if any colour (main colour red, blue or white) were to be at 0%, then there would be no subsegments (no shading). Conceptually, the "non-existent" white subsegments still potentially exist (each as 0%W). The basis of segment and subsegment divisions should be explained in a description accompanying the pie chart. This description would cover the conceptual identity of all the components of the chart, including the segment subdivisions. Anyone reading the chart would then understand that as the percentages vary with each pie chart snapshot, they can expect to see subsegment shading and know what it means.

I hope this is helpful.