Question

Item 19 The scale on a map is 1 cm:30 mi. The distance on the map between San Francisco, CA, and Chicago, IL, is 61.9 cm. What is the actual distance between San Francisco and Chicago?

Answer 1

1857 miles.

Explanation:

We have been given that the scale on a map is 1 cm:30 mi. The distance on the map between San Francisco, CA, and Chicago, IL, is 61.9 cm. We are asked to find the actual distance between San Francisco and Chicago.

We will use proportions to solve our given problem.

`\frac{\text{Actual distance}}{\text{Map distance}}=\frac{30\text{ miles}}{1\text{ cm}}`

Upon substituting map distance between San Francisco and Chicago, we will get:

`\frac{\text{Actual distance}}{61.9\text{ cm}}=\frac{30\text{ miles}}{1\text{ cm}}`

`\frac{\text{Actual distance}}{61.9\text{ cm}}\cdot 61.9\text{ cm}=\frac{30\text{ miles}}{1\text{ cm}}\cdot 61.9\text{ cm}`

`\text{Actual distance}=30\text{ miles}\cdot 61.9`

`\text{Actual distance}=1857\text{ miles}`

Therefore, the actual distance between San Francisco and Chicago is 1857 miles.