Question

A sculptor is designing her new triangular masterpiece. In her scale​ drawing, the shortest side of the triangular piece to be made measures The longest side of the drawing measures The longest side of the actual triangular piece to be sculpted must be long. How long will the shortest side of this piece​ be?

Answer 1

3.71 m

Explanation:

Here is the complete question.

A sculptor is designing her new triangular masterpiece. In her scale​ drawing, the shortest side of the triangular piece to be made measures 7 cm. The longest side of the drawing measures 20 cm. The longest side of the actual triangular piece to be sculpted must be 10.6 m long. How long will the shortest side of this piece​ be?

Solution

This is a scale drawing question.

Since scale = Scaled size/Actual size, we need to find the scale ratio of the triangle.

Now, the longest side of the drawing measures 20 cm which is equal to the scaled size and the longest side of the actual triangular piece to be sculpted is 10.6 m long which is the actual size.

So, scale = 20 cm/10.6 m

= 0.2/10.6

= 1/53.

Since in the scale drawing, the shortest side of the triangular piece to be made measures 7 cm, this is the scaled size, so the actual size of the shortest side is gotten from

scale = Scaled size/Actual size.

So,

Actual size = Scaled size/scale

= 7 cm ÷ 1/53

= 53 ×7 cm

= 371 cm

= 3.71 m