Question

Penny wants to make a model of a beetle that is larger than life size. Penny says she is going to use a scaling factor of 7/12. Does this make sense or is it nonsense? Explain.

Answer 1

It would be nonsense, as if the beetle were at normal size, then it would be considered 1/1 as a scale. If you wanted to increase it, you would increase the numerator.

Answer 2

It is nonsense. Penny claims she is going to to make it LARGER than life size. Therefore the fraction would have to be improper. The fraction stated would be making something SMALLER than life size.