Rihanna planned a rectangular courtyard for a park and made a scale drawing using inches as the unit of measurement. She originally planned for the length of the actual courtyard to be 54 feet, but she decided to change it to 72 feet. If the length of the courtyard is 18 inches in her scale drawing, which statement about the change of scale is true?

One inch represented 1 foot in the first scale, but now 1 inch represents 4 feet in the second scale.
One inch represented 4 feet in the first scale, but now 1 inch represents 3 feet in the second scale.
One inch represented 54 feet in the first scale, but now 1 inch represents 72 feet in the second scale.
One inch represented 3 feet in the first scale, but now 1 inch now represents 4 feet in the second scale.

1 answer

To determine the correct statement about the change of scale, we first need to find out the scale for the original plan and the new plan based on the information given.

  1. Original Length: The original length of the courtyard is 54 feet, which corresponds to 18 inches in the drawing.

    • Scale Calculation: \[ \text{Scale for original length} = \frac{\text{Actual Length (feet)}}{\text{Drawing Length (inches)}} = \frac{54 \text{ feet}}{18 \text{ inches}} = 3 \text{ feet per inch} \]
  2. New Length: The new length of the courtyard is 72 feet.

    • Scale Calculation: \[ \text{Scale for new length} = \frac{\text{Actual Length (feet)}}{\text{Drawing Length (inches)}} = \frac{72 \text{ feet}}{18 \text{ inches}} = 4 \text{ feet per inch} \]

Now, let’s analyze the statements provided in the question:

  • One inch represented 1 foot in the first scale, but now 1 inch represents 4 feet in the second scale. (This is incorrect; it was 3 feet in the first scale.)

  • One inch represented 4 feet in the first scale, but now 1 inch represents 3 feet in the second scale. (This is incorrect; it was 3 feet in the first scale and 4 feet in the second scale.)

  • One inch represented 54 feet in the first scale, but now 1 inch represents 72 feet in the second scale. (This is incorrect; the representation was in feet per inch.)

  • One inch represented 3 feet in the first scale, but now 1 inch represents 4 feet in the second scale. (This is correct.)

Thus, the true statement about the change of scale is:

One inch represented 3 feet in the first scale, but now 1 inch represents 4 feet in the second scale.