Using Scale to Find Distances

Solve each problem. Show your work.

While on a beach vacation, Tasha makes a scale drawing of points of interest between two piers. On her drawing, 2 centimeters (cm) represents 0.5 mile (mi). The piers are 12 cm apart on Tasha's drawing. What is the actual distance between the two piers?



Answer :

Certainly! Let's solve this problem step by step.

1. Understand the Scale:
- According to Tasha's drawing, 2 centimeters on the drawing represent 0.5 miles in real life. This is our conversion factor.

2. Identify the Distance on the Drawing:
- Tasha notes that the piers are 12 centimeters apart on her drawing.

3. Set Up a Proportion:
- We need to use the scale to convert the drawing distance into the actual distance. The scale tells us that if 2 cm represent 0.5 miles, then we can find out how many miles 12 cm represent by setting up a proportion.

4. Calculate the Actual Distance:
- First, we check how many sets of 2 cm fit into the 12 cm:
[tex]\[ \frac{12 \text{ cm}}{2 \text{ cm}} = 6 \][/tex]
- This means that we have 6 sets of 2 cm.

5. Convert to Miles:
- Each set of 2 cm represents 0.5 miles. Therefore, we multiply the number of sets by the scale's miles value:
[tex]\[ 6 \times 0.5 \text{ miles} = 3 \text{ miles} \][/tex]

So, the actual distance between the two piers is 3 miles.