Question

Mei drew a scale drawing of an apartment. The living room, which is 8 meters long in real life, is 4 millimeters long in the drawing. What is the drawing's scale factor?

Answer 1

`\text{Drawing}:\text{Real Life} = 1:2000`

Explanation:

Real life = 8m = 8000mm

Drawing = 4mm

we can take the ratio of the two values (but be sure that they both have the same units, this is why it is necessary to convert 8m to 8000mm OR you can convert 4mm to its value in meters)

`\frac{\text{Real Life}}{\text{Drawing}} = (8000)/(4)`

`\frac{\text{Real Life}}{\text{Drawing}} = (2000)/(1)`

we can also write this as:

`\text{Real Life}:\text{Drawing} = 2000:1`

so the drawing's scale factor is:

`\text{Drawing}:\text{Real Life} = 1:2000`

This means that if length of the living room in the drawing is multiplied by 2000 it will be of the same length as the living room in real life.