Question

Kara was making decorations for a school dance. She has a small figure to use for a pattern, but needs the actual

decorations to be much larger. Which scale factor might she use to make her decorations?
5 1 1/5 -1/5

Answer 1

k = 5

Explanation:

When a certain number
`n` is multiplied by a scale factor
`k`, the final number is given by

`n'=kn`

and the final number will be:

- Larger than the original number if
`|n'|>|n|`

- Smaller than the original number if
`|n'|<|n|`

In this problem, the number
`n` represents the size of the decoration.

If we apply the 4 scale factors given, we have:

- If
`k=5`, then
`n'=5n`: this means that the final decoration is larger than the original decoration --> this is the correct option

- If
`k=1`, then
`n'=n`: so the final decoration has same size as the original decoration

- If
`k=1/5`, then
`n'=(1)/(5)n`: so the final decoration is smaller than the original decoration

- If
`k=-1/5`, then
`n'=-(1)/(5)n`, so the final decoration is smaller and inverted