A triangular flag has a height of 15 inches and a base length of 25 inches. Magnolia makes a scale drawing of the flag in which the base length is 10 inches. What is the area of Magnolia’s scale drawing? Solve the problem by computing the actual area from the scale drawing. Show your work.(4 points) make it easier and that a 7th grader wrote it

1 answer

To find the area of Magnolia's scale drawing of the triangular flag, we can follow these steps:

  1. Find the area of the actual flag.

    • The formula for the area of a triangle is:
      \[ \text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \times \text{base} \times \text{height} \]
    • The actual height of the flag is 15 inches, and the base length is 25 inches.
    • So, we plug those numbers into the formula: \[ \text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \times 25 \times 15 \]
  2. Do the multiplication:

    • First, calculate \( 25 \times 15 \): \[ 25 \times 15 = 375 \]
    • Now, divide by 2: \[ \frac{375}{2} = 187.5 \]
    • So, the area of the actual flag is 187.5 square inches.
  3. Find the scale factor.

    • The base of the actual flag is 25 inches, and in Magnolia's scale drawing, the base is 10 inches.
    • To find the scale factor, we divide the base of the scale drawing by the base of the actual flag: \[ \text{Scale factor} = \frac{10}{25} = \frac{2}{5} \]
  4. Apply the scale factor to find the height of the scale drawing.

    • Since the height also scales down by the same factor, we multiply the actual height by the scale factor: \[ \text{Height of scale drawing} = 15 \times \frac{2}{5} = 6 \]
  5. Find the area of the scale drawing using the new dimensions.

    • Now we know the base of the scale drawing is 10 inches and the height is 6 inches. So we use the area formula again: \[ \text{Area of scale drawing} = \frac{1}{2} \times 10 \times 6 \]
    • Do the calculation: \[ 10 \times 6 = 60 \] \[ \frac{60}{2} = 30 \]
    • So, the area of Magnolia's scale drawing is 30 square inches.

In conclusion, the area of Magnolia’s scale drawing of the flag is 30 square inches.