Question

If 4 inches represents 100 miles on a scale drawing, how long would a line segment be that represents 50 miles?

Answer 1

To find out how long a line segment would be in the scale drawing to represent 50 miles, you can set up a proportion based on the given scale:

Given that 4 inches represents 100 miles, you can write it as:

\[
\frac{4 \text{ inches}}{100 \text{ miles}} = \frac{x \text{ inches}}{50 \text{ miles}}
\]

Now, cross-multiply to solve for \(x\):

\[
4 \text{ inches} \cdot 50 \text{ miles} = 100 \text{ miles} \cdot x \text{ inches}
\]

This simplifies to:

\[
200 = 100x
\]

Then, divide both sides by 100:

\[
x = \frac{200}{100} = 2
\]

So, the line segment that represents 50 miles would be **2 inches** long.