Final answer:
To find the scale of a bench's scale drawing that is 2 inches to its actual length of 4 feet, convert feet to inches and then create a ratio. The scale is 1 inch to 24 inches, meaning the drawing is 1/24th the size of the actual bench.
Step-by-step explanation:
The scale of a drawing is a ratio that compares the size of the drawing to the size of the real object. To find the scale in your question, where a scale drawing of a bench is 2 inches long and the actual bench is 4 feet long, you would set up a ratio to compare these two measurements, taking into account the conversion of feet to inches.
First, you need to convert the actual length of the bench from feet to inches. There are 12 inches in 1 foot, so the actual bench is 4 feet x 12 inches/foot = 48 inches long.
Next, you set up the ratio in the same units:
Scale drawing length: Actual length
2 inches : 48 inches
This can be simplified to represent the unit scale:
1 inch : 24 inches
Scale factors can be calculated from the unit scale to help determine other scaled measurements or the actual size of other objects when given their scale size. In this case, the scale factor for converting the actual bench length to the scale drawing length is 1/24, meaning that the scale drawing is 1/24th the size of the actual bench.