Felipe measured an apartment and made a scale drawing. He used the scale 4 millimeters = 10 meters. What scale factor does the drawing use?

Question

Simplify your answer and write it as a ratio, using a colon.

Answer 1

To find the scale factor of Felipe's drawing, we can start by looking at the given scale: 4 millimeters = 10 meters.

First, we need to convert 10 meters into millimeters. Since there are 1,000 millimeters in a meter, we can calculate:

10 meters = 10 × 1,000 millimeters = 10,000 millimeters.

Now we can restate the scale using the same units:

4 millimeters = 10,000 millimeters.

To find the scale factor, we put the real measurement over the drawing measurement:

Scale Factor = Real Measurement : Drawing Measurement Scale Factor = 10,000 mm : 4 mm.

Next, we simplify this ratio. We can divide both sides of the ratio by 4:

10,000 / 4 = 2,500, 4 / 4 = 1.

Thus, the simplified ratio representing the scale factor is:

2,500 : 1.