Question

You have been asked to build a scale model of your school out of toothpicks. Imagine your school is 30 feet tall. Your scale is 1 ft:1.26 cm.

If a toothpick is 6.3 cm tall, how many toothpicks tall will your model be?

The model will be
toothpicks tall.

Your mother is out of toothpicks, and suggests you use cotton swabs instead. You measure them, and they are 7.3 cm tall. How many cotton swabs tall will your model be? If necessary, round your answer to the nearest whole number.

The model will be approximately
cotton swabs tall.

Answer 1

the first one you will need about 5 toothpicks
and you will need about 4 cotton swabs

Answer 2

Let's find how tall the model will have to be by filling in the ratio.
1 ft:1.26 cm
30 ft: x cm
Whatever you do to one side of the ratio, do to the other. Let's multiply the right side by 30.
1.26×30
37.8
The height will be 37.8 cm tall. Each pick is 6.3 cm tall. Let's divide.
37.8÷6.3
6
The model will be 6 toothpicks tall.
We have to do the same thing for the cotton swabs.
37.8÷7.3
≈5.18
The model will be approximately 5 cotton swabs tall.