Question

The scale for a map is 20 miles = 1/2 inch. The distance between two towns on the map is 3 3/4 inches. What is the actual distance between these towns?

Answer 1

150 miles

Explanation:

If 1/2 of an inch is 20 miles, we can assume that 1/4 of an inch is 10 miles, since half of 1/2 is 1/4 and 1/2 of 20 is 10.

Equipped with this information, we can divide 3 by 1/2 or multiply 3 by the reciprical, 2/1 to get how much we should multiply 20 by.

3*2=6

20*6=120

Then we can multiply 10 by 3 and add that on our answer, since there are still 3/4s left and 1/4=10 miles.

10*3=30

120+30=150

The actual distance is 150 miles.

Hope this helps!