Grace measured a city park and made a scale drawing. The scale she used was 9 centimeters = 1 meter. What scale factor does the drawing use?

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

1 answer

To express the scale of 9 centimeters = 1 meter as a scale factor, we can represent it as a ratio.

First, we note that 1 meter is equal to 100 centimeters. Therefore, we can convert the scale into centimeters:

Scale: 9 centimeters (drawing) = 100 centimeters (actual size).

Now, we can write this as a ratio:

\[ 9 \text{ cm} : 100 \text{ cm} \]

To simplify this ratio, we divide both sides by 9:

\[ 1 : \frac{100}{9} \]

Expressing \( \frac{100}{9} \) as a decimal gives approximately 11.11, but we generally keep the ratio in fractional form. Therefore, the final answer is:

\[ 1 : \frac{100}{9} \]

Alternatively, if we want to express it in a simpler integer format:

The simplified form of the ratio is:

\[ 9 : 100 \]

So the scale factor of the drawing is:

\[ \boxed{9:100} \]