Measuring Straight-line Distance

MEASURING

STRAIGHT-LINE

DISTANCE

Actual Distance on Earth's Surface

​

Distance on the map

Calculate ACTUAL DISTANCE in km

Ratio Scale

• What does the scale of 1 : 50 000 means?

• For every 1 cm on the map, the actual distance on the ground is 50 000cm/0.5km

• 50 000 cm = 500 m = 0.5 km

  ** 1 cm represents 0.5 km

Conversion of cm to m to km

• 100 cm = 1 m = 0.001 km

  ALWAYS CONVERT FIRST

• E.g. Scale 1 : 20000

• 20000 cm = 200 m = 0.2 km

• 1 cm represents 0.2 km

Ratio Scale

• What does the scale of 1 : 100 000 means?

• For every 1 cm on the map, the actual distance on the ground is 100 000 cm / 1 km

• 100 000 cm = 1000 m = 1 km

  ** 1 cm represents 1 km

Ratio Scale

• What does the scale of 1 : 150 000 means?

• For every 1 cm on the map, the actual distance on the ground is 1.5 km

• 150 000 cm = 1500 m = 1.5 km

  ** 1 cm represents 1.5 km

Ratio Scale

If you cannot remember ... ...

• Just divide by 100 000!

• 1 : 200 000

• 1 cm represents 2 km

Multiple Choice

1 : 100 000

• 1 cm represents 0.1 km

• 1 cm represents

  1 km

• 1 cm represents

  10 km

• 1 cm represents

  100 km

Multiple Choice

1 : 200 000

• 1 cm represents 0.2 km

• 1 cm represents

  2 km

• 1 cm represents

  20 km

• 1 cm represents

  200 km

Multiple Choice

1 : 1 000 000

• 1 cm represents 0.1 km

• 1 cm represents

  1 km

• 1 cm represents

  10 km

• 1 cm represents

  100 km

Multiple Choice

1 : 10 000

• 1 cm represents 0.1 km

• 1 cm represents

  1 km

• 1 cm represents

  10 km

• 1 cm represents

  100 km

Calculate ACTUAL DISTANCE in km

• Scale 1 : 50 000 (1 cm rep. 50 000 cm / 500 m / 0.5 km)

• 1 cm =

• 2 cm =

• 5 cm =

• 2.5 cm =

Multiple Choice

Scale 1 : 25 000

What is the actual distance if the map distance is 3 cm?

• 0.25 km

• 0.5 km

• 0.75 km

• 1 km

Match

Using a Scale of 1 : 50 000, match the following:

• 1 cm

• 2 cm

• 2.5 cm

• 10 cm

• 2.2 cm

0.5 km

1 km

1.25 km

5 km

1.1 km

• 0.5 km

• 1 km

• 1.25 km

• 5 km

• 1.1 km

Calculate ACTUAL DISTANCE in km

Calculate ACTUAL DISTANCE in km