Question

1. mr. willis is building a new dock at his lakehouse that will be 35 feet long. if the blueprints show the dock as 16 inches long, what scale was used to create the blueprint?

Explanation:

Step1: Convert actual length to inches

Since \(1\) foot \( = 12\) inches, the actual length of the dock \(35\) feet \(=35\times12 = 420\) inches.

Step2: Calculate the scale

The scale is the ratio of the blueprint length to the actual length. The blueprint length is \(16\) inches and the actual length is \(420\) inches. So the scale is \(\frac{16}{420}=\frac{4}{105}\). This means \(1\) inch on the blueprint represents \(\frac{105}{4}= 26.25\) inches in real - life. Or we can write the scale as \(1\) inch : \(26.25\) inches.

Answer:

The scale is \(1\) inch : \(26.25\) inches.