Question

A micro-photograph of a human hair shows the hair magnified 150 times. If the hair is

2 cm wide in the photograph, what is the actual width of the hair? Express your
answer in mm, rounded to 2 decimal places

Answer 1

The actual width of the hair is 20 / 150 = 0.13 mm

Explanation:

Scaling

Objects can be represented in a reduced or augmented size by using scaling which is basically multiplying or dividing by a constant factor. We use scaling in several applications of real-life.

The human hair is magnified 150 times by a micro-phtograph. This is the scale factor.

The hair can be seen 2 cm wide in the photograph.

Converting to millimeters, 2 cm = 2*10 = 20 millimeters.

The actual width of the hair is 20 / 150 = 0.13 mm