Scale factor

​Scale factors

By Eya Othmane

What is a scale model

A scale model is a replica that is smaller or larger than the original object. In a scale model, all the dimensions are proportionate to the original object. You may have used a map to find your way around a city or in a museum. This is a scale model!

Open Ended

Carlos has a picture that is 12 inches tall and 9 inches wide. He wants to reduce the size of this picture so that it has a width of 3.6 inches. Carlos needs to determine the height of the reduced picture.

Open Ended

Juan found a set of blueprints for the new library. On the blueprints, the width of the library is 15 centimeters. Juan heard on the news that the library will be 22.5 meters wide.

What is the scale of the blueprints?

Open Ended

A model of a cell has a width of 12 inches. The actual cell is 3 micrometers wide (this is extremely small!).

What is the scale factor?

Multiple Choice

Do you always need to put the scale ratio on the left side of the scale proportion and the missing value on the right side?

• Yes

• No

Open Ended

The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is 36,201 feet deep. Fiona is making a scale model of the ocean floor of the Pacific Ocean. The scale she is using is 1 inch to 3,291 feet.

In Fiona's scale model, how deep is the Mariana Trench?