Question

A plot of land is for sale. A scale drawing of the land shows the distance between the house and a barn as 4.8 cm. If the drawing uses a 1/800 scale factor what is the actual distance in meters between the house and the barn?​

Answer 1

If the scale factor is 1/800, it means that 1 cm on the scale drawing represents 800 cm or 8 meters in real life.

So, to find the actual distance between the house and the barn, we need to convert the distance on the scale drawing (4.8 cm) to meters and then multiply by the scale factor:

Actual distance = (Distance on scale drawing in cm) x (Conversion factor)

where the conversion factor is:

Conversion factor = (1 cm) / (100 cm/m) = 0.01 m/cm

Plugging in the values, we get:

Actual distance = (4.8 cm) x (0.01 m/cm) x (8 meters/1 cm) = 0.384 meters

Therefore, the actual distance between the house and the barn is 0.384 meters.