Final answer:
The scale factor of the rectangle is 1/4.
Step-by-step explanation:
The scale factor can be calculated by finding the ratio of the corresponding sides of the original rectangle and the dilated rectangle.
The original rectangle has a vertex at (8, 12) and after dilation, the new coordinate is (2, 3).
Let's calculate the scale factor:
The horizontal scale factor is calculated as the change in x-coordinate of the vertices:
(new x-coordinate - old x-coordinate) / old x-coordinate = (2 - 8) / 8 = -6/8 = -3/4
The vertical scale factor is calculated as the change in y-coordinate of the vertices:
(new y-coordinate - old y-coordinate) / old y-coordinate = (3 - 12) / 12 = -9/12 = -3/4
Since both the horizontal and vertical scale factors are the same, we can conclude that the scale factor is -3/4, which can be simplified to 1/4.