Question

Marisol draws a triangle with a 4-inch base and 6-inch height. She dilates the triangle by a scale factor of 1.5. Compare the areas of the dilated triangle and the original triangle. Use a decimal response if necessary. The area of the dilated triangle is _ times the area of the original triangle.

Answer 1

Scale factor for area = (linear scale factor)^2 = 1.5^2 = 2.25.

Check: original area = 1/2·4·6 = 12 in^2. Dilated triangle has base 6 and height 9, area = 1/2·6·9 = 27 in^2, and 27/12 = 2.25.

So the dilated triangle's area is 2.25 times the original.