Question

Hunter measured the middle school and made a scale drawing. The scale he used was 1 inch : 10 feet. The gym is 7 inches wide in the drawing. How wide is the actual gym?

Answer 1

70 ft

Explanation:

You want the actual width of a gym that is represented as 7 inches on a drawing with a scale of 1 in : 10 ft.

Scale factor

Each inch represents 10 feet, so 7 inches will represent ...

7 × 10 ft = 70 ft

The gym is 70 ft wide.

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Additional comment

You can also write and solve an equation that shows the measures are proportional:

actual width / drawing width = (10 ft) / (1 in) = (gym width) / (7 in)

Multiplying both sides of this proportion by 7 in, we have ...

gym width = (7 in) × (10 ft)/(1 in) = 7 × 10 ft = 70 ft